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Chapter Text

Fuchu, Tokyo Prefecture
Miho Dorm, Tracen Academy
Early September Junior Year
4 months until the Shinzan Kinen

Taiki Shuttle, member of team Rigil and future Umamusume of the year sat in one the communal dorm lounges in Miho Dormitory. She had a big box in her hands that she set down on a table, in white with some red stripes, the English lettering was unmistakable “United States Postal Service” with the sender address being her family farm back in Kentucky. She smiled, while Japan was nice, she did miss home. She grabbed a knife and cut through the packaging to reveal several bags of chips, a few boxes of various candies, two letters, and a VHS tape. The smell of the chips reminded her of her father. They would often sit together on the porch after a long day and would watch the sun set in Kentucky. She grabbed one of the letters, and put the VHS tape into the TV. The snacks and such would come later, she plopped down unceremoniously onto the couch. Today was the weekend but the week had been rough as usual, she was used to long schedules being born and raised on a farm, but Hana Toujou was a very strict trainer. She had taken Taiki quickly for Team Rigil and pushed all the members to their limits day in and day out. She was dead tired as she hit play on the tape.

She watched the first few minutes of the tape, it was a summary of the history behind one of the oldest NASCAR races on the schedule, the Southern 500. Held on Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway. The news commentators and talking heads were going over the history and some of the racers, Taiki was then shot out of her thinking when she heard someone sit down nearby.
“What are you watching? I can’t understand any of it.” It was Meisho Doto, one of Taiki’s friends here.

The Southern girl smiled “It’s a car race, it’s a series called NASCAR. You know Formula 1 right?”

Meisho nodded rapidly “Y-yeah, I know Formula 1, Maruzensky is always talking about it. So, what makes this so special?”

Taiki then pointed at one of the cars, as the commentators spoke “This is a new driver on the track, a young man from North Carolina making his debut in the NASCAR cup series, Jessie Jackson, an owner driver, who’s been a consistent driver in the Late Model leagues in North Carolina. He’s been good there, but running on this level is certainly a shock, especially without a team owner to support him. He qualified in 16th edging out Todd Bodine for the slot, we’ll see how he performs in the race.” Taiki acted as translator for Meisho Doto, who didn’t have enough fluency in English to keep up with what was going on.

Meisho then turned to Taiki and raised an eyebrow “I get he’s new to the sport, but why does that interest you?”

Taiki raised a finger and spoke proudly “That’s my Penpal! That’s who! I got paired with him back in middle school. We just never really stopped writing, I can certainly say he’s a pal of mine, just haven’t met him yet.”

Meisho Doto continued to look at Taiki confused “A friend you’ve never met? Oh, um, that’s… that’s so bold, Taiki! I’d be too nervous to write to someone so far away!” She was clearly a little confused about the whole thing.

Taiki shrugged “He was in the same grade as me, I actually have a letter from him, I can read it if you want.” Meisho Doto nodded “Well I would find it more interesting, the race is hard to understand.”

Taiki went and grabbed the letter and opened it. The seal was easy to break and she opened the paper, she knew that it would be a bit of a pain to translate between English and then speaking it in Japanese but she would give it her best try.

“Dear Taiki,
I’m writing to you in my garage in North Carolina. It's Tuesday but I’m going to spend the next few days qualifying, doing inspections, and everything else to get this car around the track. I’ll probably won’t be able to get anything if you have sent something my way. Your folks told me that I should write to them and they’ll send it over to Tracen for me, saving me the postage money. They also told me that they’ll send you a recording of the race. I just wanted to tell you that they also sent me a tape of your debut race. I had a hell of a time listening to the Japanese voices of the commentators, and I did laugh my butt off listening to them pronounce the word shuttle, but I also saw you run. You hung back in the pack until that last part of the turn, then you just shot out, running the rest into the dust and beating them by six lengths! You got some real talent, I mean I knew that you got scouted to go to this fancy Japanese school, but you really and I mean really got some stuff. Guess it’s one thing reading about it compared to really seeing it, one thing though that I noticed. You were looking at that crowd during the last leg and it probably cost you a leg or two of the race. You should work on that. Ah, you probably hear that a lot from that fancy trainer lady you've been telling me about. You also probably want me to tell you a little bit about what I've been doing, not just repeating your own glories back to you. I got my team set up, the car was a hassle to work with but hopefully by the time I'm done I'll make her sing on Darlington. My crew is the same guys I've been working with since high school, my dad's the crew chief, my friends fill up the rest. It's going to be one big drive I can tell you that much. Now, I hope to qualify well and win, just like you. You inspired me Taiki, I hope I can do the same for you. 

Your friend, 

Jessie” 

Taiki finished reading it and Meisho noticed that Taiki started to cry a little. The southern Uma brushed away the tears. His letter reminded Taiki of home, just how far away she was. What made her the most happy though, what made her heart beat just as fast as when she was in the starting gate was those words “You inspired me”. That sort of thing was why she wanted to race, why she wanted to be the Umamusume of the Year. She wanted to make her family, her friends, everyone she ever met as happy as possible, to push themselves as hard as she did. She looked out at the TV and hit the fast forward button, the race was three hours and while she respected Jessie a lot, she didn't want to hog the TV during the weekend. Meisho Doto was the one who spoke up then, her ears drooped, muttering out, “You’re skipping so much! What if we miss something important?” Taiki understood but said with some tension in her voice “I know I just… can’t be a jerk to everyone on this floor and hold up their excitement. She stopped when there were three laps to go, but then she checked the score on the upper left side of the screen. Jessie was in first, Jeff Gordon following close behind him. Taiki got up and started yelling at the TV, she knew that he couldn't hear her, that this was a tape of a race that took place days ago, but at that moment she yelled like she was in the grandstand in South Carolina, the sun blazing down on her skin, the roar of the engines, and the smell of burning rubber. “Come on Jessie! Push it just a little bit more! You're almost done! You can do it!”

Meisho Doto knew enough English to see the score and Taiki's enthusiasm and softly joined in on it “Go Jessie!” She said in very unconfident English, but Taiki appreciated it anyway. She then started to focus again on the race commentary “Jeff Gordon tries to go up on the higher line in turn 1 but Jessie Jackson throws up another block! This kid’s like a Stone wall, you just ain’t getting past him. The cars go past the straightaways now with Jessie Jackson pulling away with three lengths! Now we go around again with two laps to go.”

Even Meisho Doto like Taiki was glued to the TV screen, Doto began to touch her tail showing her nervousness, and Taiki’s ears were just as alert as when she was in the starting gate. Jackson's car, red like blood and blue like the sea with the number 26, blew around the track. The White flag dropped, Jessie kept blocking Gordon’s Dupont sponsored car, high in turns one and two, low in the straightaway, and then going right down the middle in turns three and four. It would be down to one more lap. Taiki gripped the couch so tight her knuckles started to go white. She was an Uma musume of course, they all loved to run. She knew it wasn’t exactly the same but she had an idea of how intense this was for Jessie, she knew how fast you had to push yourself, the split second reactions, the adrenaline making everything feel like it’s happening at half the speed it actually was. Her tail flicked in her seat with the roar of the engine, her ears perked up to the sounds of the screeching tires, Jessie was in turn 4 now, he was a length ahead of Jeff Gordon. He was so close to the finish line at Darlington he must have been able to taste it. Then the red, white, and blue painted car crossed over the finish line. The pressure in Taiki’s body started to go out. Jessie had won, Taiki couldn’t be happier. Her penpal all the way back from middle school had made his own debut in the world of racing.

She jumped out of the couch and threw up her arms in joy hollering “YEEE HAW!”

Even Meisho Doto looked happy as the race commentators spoke about how surprising it was. 

Jessie did a victory lap and got out of the car, taking off his red helmet to show a blonde haired, blue eyed man. His hair was short and he was clean shaven. He held his helmet in one hand and stepped on top of the car, doing a mock salute for the cheering crowd. A commercial break was then put on, showing off some soap brand.

Taiki was finally shook from her stupor, speaking a mile a minute “Did you see that Doto? He did it! He really did it! He won his first race! A big one too!”

Doto looked at her again “What do you mean a big one? I mean it was just a race.”

Taiki instantly replied and held up her hands, brow furrowed “That was one of the crown jewels, it’s like the NASCAR version of the triple crown. He won a Crown jewel in his first race…”

She smiled with a strong sense of pride, he was inspired by her after all. The commercials ended with the car now being in victory lane, Jessie and his team were partying, the camera was following a reporter who shoved a camera in the young driver's face.

“Jessie! You ran a legendary race, winning the Southern 500 in your rookie race and making a blazing start in the Winston Cup. Now everyone’s got your eyes on you, what’s the next step? What’s got you the most excited for the future?”.

Jessie smiled widely, he was holding up strongly but Taiki could tell that there was a battle of emotions going on in his head as he answered “Well my next goals are very simple, have a good time and get ready for more races! I want to do well in these next few, and what has me most excited for the future? I plan to run in the NASCAR Thunder exhibition race!”

The reporter butted in there to Taiki’s annoyance, it was supposed to be Jessie’s time to talk, she didn’t need to hear some reporter yammer on and on. “That’s the race in Japan, the Special Suzuka, correct?”

Jessie nodded “That’s right! I got a pal of mine in Japan that I hope to see on the way. I do hope to perform well in the foreseeable future. For the folks at home, that race is on November 24th! Mark it on your calendars! Hopefully I’ll see a few of you there.” Jessie stared right into the camera as he did it, as if the reporter wasn’t there.

The reporter then cut away but Taiki looked at Doto and said “Do you know what this means?!” getting right in Doto’s face as she spoke.

Doto shook her head no nervously “T-taiki do you mind backing up a little? What did he say?”

Taiki smiled widely, and said “MY BUDDY’S COMING TO JAPAN IN TWO MONTHS! LET’S GO!!!!”

She was practically jumping for joy at the news, all she had to do was wait. It was two months away but she was already planning the tour of Tracen’s grounds, getting him to meet team Rigil, maybe putting on something for him. She knew a barbecue was in order but would he want to see her run? What would he think of her? Would he think she was as good as he described her in the letters?

She was shaken out of her sudden self consciousness by Doto’s words “Taiki… you’re very excited to see a friend… especially one you’ve never seen before.”

Taiki suddenly spun around on Doto with a slight hint of what could be considered hostile. “He’s not just some guy on the TV or my letters! I’ve been writing letters back and forth with him before I even competed in the local Kentucky leagues and got scouted here. I’ve written to him about every defeat and every victory, and he does the same for me.”

Doto held up her hands in surrender and cowered slightly, making Taiki feel guilty “Sorry… I just need to try to understand. It’s very odd…”

Taiki smiled and decided she would tell Doto all she knew about Jessie.

Chapter Text

North Wilkesboro Speedway, North Carolina
NASCAR Garage
September 27th 1996
2 days before the Tyson Holly Farms 400

Jessie Jackson was in a garage hotter than the devil’s armpit on a warm night in North Carolina. The place stunk of rubber and gasoline, the kind of smell that stuck to your clothes and made you stink of the street for the whole day. He worked under the hood of his car now known as “Stonewall” by the media, due to his habit of aggressive blocking and a pun on his last name being similar to a Confederate general. He was stuck in his work, he had built Stonewall by himself, got every single part and tuned it as much as he could. He knew he had a team for this but he was too driven to stop. He needed to get this set up just right for this race, last race at Dover he had gotten messed up by Jeff Gordon who had gone on to win the whole thing. He worked with his torque wrench and was tightening one of the many parts of the engine. The engine was the core of the car, producing up to 750 Uma power and could make the car easily pass 200 miles an hour. He wouldn’t be able to go that fast at North Wilkesboro, it was a half a mile long short track that he’d have to go around 400 times in order to hit the finish line. The tracks that could go past it have to slot a restrictor plate into the engine for safety reasons. He hated it for obvious reasons, you can’t tell a racer that he can’t go fast enough. He could hear other crews doing the same thing in the garage, the roar of an engine as Jimmy Spencer made another lap in the evening for practice. Johnny Cash was playing on the radio, which none of the teams objected to enough to change the station.

He turned the wrench again and finished the adjustments that he was looking for, allowing Jessie the time to think about the last few races. Dover was a hard battle for Gordon but he did win. The most crushing loss for Jessie had been at Richmond, Jessie did finish in the top five but he could have won if it weren’t for an early bump by Dale Earnhardt who messed up Jessie’s aerodynamics. He had to spend a pretty penny after the race smoothing the bottom back up. He had won at Darlington and at the previous race in Martinsville, by blocking or in the case of Martinsville by beating Jeff Gordon through diving into the inside line with 10 laps to go. He was big enough now that getting the Rookie of the Year award by NASCAR and the money that came with it was a shoe in by now. He even got some funny nicknames by the press “Son of the South” and his car being called “Stonewall”, he knew it was an easy joke to make with his style of aggressive blocking and his last name but he was worried that it could cause sponsors to look another way. NASCAR was trying to expand, new tracks in New Hampshire, Miami, and a Texas track opening next year gave a very good idea as to what the sport was doing, they were trying to go into new markets. Jessie knew that he was a new driver but he felt like he was considered just as much of a throwback as new blood. He wasn’t a veteran like Earnhardt, Elliot, or the countless other old school drivers turning laps. He also wasn’t like Jeff Gordon or someone completely new, a guy from California who picked up racing in Indiana. The thoughts continued, with Jessie under the hood with his mind spiraling with more and more doubts. A consequence of the sport favoring being aware of everything more than most others, just as much he studied where people were, it made him just as aware of where he wasn’t.

He was shaken from his thoughts when the door to the garage opened and the country music on the radio was lowered in volume. A voice spoke up “Hey Jessie, you got mail from your girlfriend”, Jessie turned to see his friend and gas man Brian holding up a letter with a shit eating grin on his face. Jessie could see that some of the other teams were looking at him.

Jessie quickly grabbed it from him “She’s not my damn girlfriend Brian, just a penpal from back in the day. She’s a racer like me, she just uses two legs instead of four wheels”.

Brian rolled his eyes “What are you president of her fan club? How about you screw your head on straight and focus on winning your own damn races?”

Jessie looked around “What, you blind? Or have you not seen we haven’t been outside the top 5 for every single race we’ve run? I won Darlington, I won at Martinsville. They’re already calling me ‘Son of the South’ ‘cause of the way the car is painted.”

Brian sighed “Man I was just jerking your chain, read the letter already so we can get back to work.”

Jessie sighed and opened the letter after wiping the grease from his hands.

The letter was finely done, with a Japanese stamp and everything. A return address to Tracen academy, it had been a month since she had written to him. He knew she was probably busy with training and he respected the work she put into it, but it still stung a little. The envelope stunk of some kind of perfume, she must have written this right after she had gotten out of the shower or she needed to go somewhere important. He began to read it to himself.

“Dear Jessie,”
“Sorry for not writing sooner, I’ve been plumb tired the past few weeks working so hard with Toujou and the rest of team Rigil. I’ve also been watching your races live too! Yeah, I was able to through enough beggin, pleadin, and getting a lot of the girls to watch that tape of Darlington. Eventually Symboli relented and got that set up, I saw you drive that car around in Martinsville back to victory lane again! It sucks that you couldn’t get that race in Dover to go together, and tell that Dale Earnhardt that I’m gonna give him a piece of his mind if he bumps you again! You built that car with heart, I read every single letter you sent about putting it together. The idea of someone just trying to wreck it when they got sponsors that can give them millions when you’re a small town kid just hurts. The idea that you can get your dreams taken from you like that is scary, makes me worry about you. I mean, I got a whole ride at Tracen but you need to struggle and claw for everything you ever got. Be careful, I want to finally get to meet you in Japan.” 

“Yours truly, 

Taiki Shuttle”

Jessie smiled at the letter, he could feel the heart she put into this. He always appreciated how spirited she was, when she talked about her farm, her family, and racing he could feel every emotion. He looked over to the envelope and found a picture she left inside, it had her in her racing outfit, looking like she was blowing smoke from a finger gun made up of her gloved hands. He looked at the surroundings, a green hedge and a brown racing track behind her. It paired well with her bright blue eyes and messy ponytail of blonde hair. Her outfit was a little revealing for his preferences but he figured if it was good enough for her he shouldn’t rain on her parade. Her top was more like a bikini, with a sheriff’s star right next to her right breast, a cowboy hat on the back, a red bandanna around her neck. He could see how much her skin was getting tanned from working in the sun so much. Looking down she had a pretty nice skirt on, with a leather half skirt, half belt thing that Jessie didn’t exactly know what to categorize as paired with a holster with a revolver inside. It wasn’t just any revolver, it was the Colt Single Action Army, the revolver he saw when western movies from the 1950s and 1960s were on TV. He wondered how in god’s name she had bought it or got through customs in Japan and that Tracen let her carry it on her hip during training and presumably as part of her racing outfit. Maybe the Japanese were simply ignorant and thought that this was just what Americans did. This girl really was something else, a brilliant runner and a miracle worker.

Jessie chuckled, but it got him to think as he looked at Stonewall. He wasn't really the same as her, all he had to do was wheel a car around, anyone could do that. She had to run, day in and day out, to sprint for over a kilometer at the speed a car could go on the highway. If he had to do anything like that he'd fall on his butt and be in a hospital for weeks. He was sure Taiki could probably do what he did. He also knew that rationally Taiki was right, he had bought every single part, the Thunderbird body from Ford, making a custom fuel line to give Stonewall an extra gallon of gas, running the aerodynamics, painting the car. Could she do what he did? Hell, she’d probably hop in Stonewall, qualify in 40th, and probably beat half the field.

His father came in, he looked at Jessie with a cross expression that screamed trouble. “You did a hell of a thing those few weeks ago son. Promising on national television we're going to Japan.”

Jessie rolled his eyes “Pop, are we doing this again? It's an exhibition race, it'll put our name out there. We need sponsor money, you know that.”

His father sighed and rubbed his temples, his baseball cap getting pushed back to make room for his thick fingers. “Son, you need to think about the money you'd be spending going over there, we'd need to buy plane tickets, transport the car, get all of that set up to run a kind of course you've never done before. You need to think about these things, not some girl you've never actually met.”

Jessie glared at his father, while his dad was always supportive of Jessie’s dream, he never liked Jessie talking to Taiki. He always thought that it was weird, that Jessie shouldn't be hung up on some friend in a different state. Well now an ocean over, going to Tracen academy in Tokyo did that. “Don’t bring Taiki into this Dad. She ain't got nothing to do with my decisions. Now, I'm going to win this race, we'll have another win on the ticket, we'll win Rookie of the Year for sure, and some sponsors will throw enough money our way to get us ready for the next season.”

Jessie was just getting heated up when he noticed a brunette walk in. His sister from another mother, Heather Macpherson. She had her hat on and a mechanics uniform. “Well now ‘Son of the South’, your old man is giving you trouble over Japan?”

Jessie nodded to her, “Yeah that's right”, he said with a hint of bitterness.

She took note of it and decided to defuse the situation with humor “Well Mr. Jackson, you can calm down a little, he's got this money wise, and if you're dragging us 7,000 miles away from home cowboy, you better wheel us into victory lane.”


Jessie nodded and smiled “Thanks Heather, I'll get back to Stonewall.”

His father shook his head “No son, you get some rest, I'm going to have Brian look it over. The boy’s been slacking off a little, so I'll put him to work.”

Brian who was suddenly brought back into conversation, stuck his head out of the magazine he was reading “Hey!” However he complied and got ready to make adjustments to Stonewall.

Jessie would look down at the car’s hood, shining back his sweaty and grease streaked form. A gearhead kid from North Carolina who had a little bit of talent and a whole lot of luck. Would she see him as a real race car driver, or just some guy who made some wheels spin? Maybe he was getting too hung up on some girl halfway across the planet. He elected to leave the garage, getting ready to head to bed.

Chapter Text

Fuchu, Tokyo Prefecture
Main School building, Tracen Academy
Early November Junior Year
Two months until the Shinzan Kinen

Taiki Shuttle was in her morning Japanese history class, but she had to fight away her sleepiness. She almost dozed off when she was called on by the teacher.

“Ms. Shuttle, who unified Japan and ended the period of the Sengoku Jidai?”

Taiki floundered, “Yawn…. Jessie Jackson?” The teacher looked completely dumbfounded while some of her classmates giggled.  “No.. it was Tokugawa Ieyasu.” She restated and the teacher then nodded, moving on with his history lecture.

The rest of the classes were a blur, Taiki was exhausted by the end of the day and knew she would have a training session soon. She went and fell onto her bed, she could just close her eyes for a moment.

She woke up with loud knocking on her door, she blinked awake and looked at the time, she had slept for her entire break. She had 5 minutes to get out the door and to the track for practice. She threw on her track suit, and ran out the door to see T.M. Opera O standing there. The very theatrical Uma began to speak

“Ah, my American teammate, Taiki Shuttle. What troubles your eyes? I see the discoloration of purple under your Cerulean windows to the soul. Is my presence so radiant that it causes such an effect? Or is there something that troubles your sleep?”

Taiki sighed “Look, we need to get to the track, but if you must know. I was busy watching the NAPA 500 in Atlanta. Jessie won that race…”

She saw Opera O smile at that comment, “Ah! That explains your condition, you were up watching the clash of the metallic beasts of the track, the sparks flying, the fate of racers and teams being decided? I must admit that you have convinced many of the others in the academy to watch the sport’s reruns on occasion. However it seems most of them prefer the contests in Baseball. I have heard that they plan to host an exhibition in our land of Japan. It will be a grand event to showcase the sport at the Suzuka track. I assume you will be in attendance? It seems this Jessie Jackson has truly earned your affections. Will you watch him perform on that stage of asphalt and burnt rubber?” 

Taiki held up her hand before Opera O could continue, once you let that girl go she would talk a mile. “If you’re asking me if I’m going to see the Special Suzuka, I signed up but the darn tickets are being done through some kind of lottery system. It’d just stink that I do so much to try to see him but I might not get it because of chance.”

They had been jogging as they went and finally arrived at the track. The trainer, Hana Toujou, wore a business suit, a pair of glasses, and heels. Unlike the Umas of team Rigil who all wore athletic tracksuits she looked like a Japanese salarywoman. She launched into a very intensive training routine for each of them. Taiki didn’t perform as well as she usually did, to her own chagrin. She was paired with El Condor Pasa to do a run of the turf track with the distance being 1600m to be a copy of her future run at the Shinzan Kinen.

She went into the starting line with El Condor Pasa, when Symboli Rudolf dropped the white flag signaling the start of the race. Taiki shot ahead, she was really good with miles. Her heart was pounding as fast as her feet were crashing into the turf, first was the uphill stretch. She forced herself up and into the turn. The white fence separating the turf from the dirt being her throughline. It reminded her then of the track, there wasn’t inside fences but also the turns were banked on those NASCAR tracks. That’d be really strange to run on, she had to shake her head. She was losing focus on the running, she had to keep going. She could hear El getting closer and closer to her. She ran around the corner and hit a small downhill until another uphill stretch to the finish line. There was 200 meters left, she had this. She then couldn’t get her legs to move as fast as she wanted them to, eventually she could see El pass her in the last possible moment, beating her by a neck. Taiki doubled over at the finish line and would have collapsed if it weren’t for her discipline. She was completely exhausted, having put almost all of her energy into that run.

She was brought out of her stupor when Hishi Amazon, who had been holding the finishing line flag, walked over and jabbed a water bottle into her face “Take this, you seem exhausted.”

Taiki nodded in thanks and quickly quenched her thirst. Then she heard Hana Toujou’s heels click into the distance, she had been watching from the empty grandstands and had motioned Taiki over. The girl walked to her trainer slowly, knowing she was going to get a chewing out. The Japanese trainer behind her glasses and clipboard seemed to almost look through Taiki, stripping her of all of her pretensions, all of it going down to her racing performance, her data. She then spoke “You had El Condor Pasa beat, but you lost focus, you got exhausted when all you had before this was a basic warm up. You’re tired, what’s going on?”

Taiki looked down and to the right from her, kicking the ground under her softly. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

Hana snapped to get Taiki’s attention “Look me in the eye, why did you not get much sleep? Is there something that could affect your future performance?”

Taiki shook her head rapidly “No, no! I just… stayed up watching the NAPA 500, it’s a NASCAR race in-”

She was cut off by Hana who glared at her “If I hear one more about that stupid American sport, it will be too soon. Let me get this right, you stayed up late watching a race when you could have just set it to record on a tape to watch it later? No, of course you didn’t think of that. I ask you, do you want to be an Umamusume of the Year? A champion? If you just want to run around wildly with no focus in the world, I’m sure that other teams could take you, like Spica.” 

Taiki looked down, shame evident on her expression but she didn’t say anything to Hana, she knew that Hana was right. The rest of Hana’s words seemed to just wash away like water at the beach. Taiki looked up and took in the track, Tracen had an entire race course to be a perfect replica of the Tokyo racecourse in their academy, an all you could eat cafeteria, she could reasonably get almost anything she wanted at stores in Tokyo. What did Jessie have to get when he raced in the top series? He was technically sponsored but by his dad’s mechanic shop, he went and bought every single part for the car himself, she recalled all the letters he had written about building the car. All she had to do was run as hard as she did, he had to drive a car for three hours or more in a car that went over 100 degrees from the inside, she didn’t have to think of pit strategy, and the countless other things she had read him mention casually or in a book she had started reading about NASCAR to understand him more. 

She wasn’t exactly the pioneering cowgirl that the outfit she wore would tell the crowd. She had a lot of support to help get her to where she was now. She thought about the exhibition race again, if she could get close to Jessie, would he really think of her as someone similar to him? She was on a similar level of competition, but she had a team, she had resources that he didn’t. She felt a pit open up in the top of her stomach, and a bile rising in her throat. Eventually Hana spoke words that Taiki quickly comprehended “Go sit down at the bleachers, you’re done for the day. Take a long rest and get ready for extra training tomorrow.”

Taiki nodded and sat down and watched the rest of team Rigil train and run scrimmages against each other. She watched Symboli Rudolf, the so-called Emperor of Tracen Academy, run down and beat out Air Groove and Narita Brian. Taiki figured that the title was accurate, Symboli Rudolf had been a winner of the Triple Crown, one of the most coveted titles in Japanese Umamusume racing. It needed her to win the Satsuki Sho, Japanese Derby, and Kikua Sho. Her word carries a significant amount of weight in the Academy as head of the Student council. Taiki then let her mind relax, she didn’t need to worry right now. She closed her eyes and took a nap.

She got woken up by Air Groove, the vice president of the student council who took a cross expression “Get up, training is over. You were out for three hours, get some better sleep tonight, you can’t let your Circadian Rhythm be knocked out. If you do this again, we’ll revoke your privileges to watch foreign sporting events.”

Taiki held up her hands in surrender. “Fine, I won’t be watching any of them live anymore.”

Air Groove then frowned but nodded “Fine, just record them. You can watch them on your own time, but there’s a large time difference between America and Japan.”

Taiki nodded slowly, “I get the point Groove.”

Taiki began to walk back to her dorm, she knew some people she could try talking to about this, but apparently even T.M. Opera O knew about it. Okay to be fair, she had been talking her head off about this for the past month or so.

It was a little weird now that she thought about it. Why did she talk her head off about NASCAR, Jessie was a good pal for hers for years now, but now it felt more significant. She had always been pushing for her own dreams since she was a little girl in the Kentucky state leagues, but now she could see one of her best friends, someone who had always told her to push for her dream with everything finally getting a chance to accomplish his own. Her mind wandered as she walked into the mail room, finding a letter from Jessie directly, rather than sent with her monthly care package. It was a little thicker than usual. Her mood soared, running back to her dorm was longer than usual, but she threw the door open and ran to her desk. She wasn’t like her refined roommate Meijiro Dober, she tore the envelope apart and grabbed the letter that came out.

“Dear Taiki,
It’s your pal Jessie again, writing to you from Georgia this time. I wanted to let you know what’s been going on in my world. I got a race coming up in the NAPA 500 at Georgia, but I don’t really think that’s the most important thing in the world right now. I got a big invitation from NASCAR, they actually are going to let me race at Suzuka. I do have a big problem though, I don’t speak a darn word of Japanese, and I know you’re fluent going to that Tracen Academy. So here’s the deal, I’m going to be landing at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. I'm going to be taking a train to Suzuka. I heard from some people that apparently they're making people sign up for a lottery system in order to get into the race. Now that might work for some regular, but for my buddy that just won't do! I attached something on the back of the letter. I hope you like it.

Your friend, 

Jessie” 

Taiki flipped the letter around to the other side. Inside was a ticket to the NASCAR Thunder Special Suzuka, with a VIP sticker. This wouldn't just give her a decent seat. It would allow her access right up into the garage and even be able to talk to Jessie before the race. Her mood soared, she wasn't going to sleep for a while, she had to plan. She got out her calendar and started marking out dates she wouldn't be able to attend any training sessions. Hana would probably be fine with giving Taiki a rest period anyway.

Chapter Text

Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan
NASCAR Garage
November 20th, 1996

Four days until the NASCAR Thunder Special Suzuka
The Suzuka Circuit, normally used for Formula One cars now had the unfamiliar roar of the NASCAR stock car. The Garage was a confusing mix of Japanese and English, several Japanese drivers had been brought in for publicity reasons. Jessie didn’t mind, he figured the Japanese crowd needed a few hometown heroes of their own to cheer on. His forearms were streaked with grease as he made adjustments to the carburetor. Since the crack of dawn Jessie had been up and working on the suspension for Stonewall, the S turns of the track were nothing like the oval courses that Jessie was now fairly proficient at driving in NASCAR natively. His red, white, and blue Ford Thunderbird “Stonewall” would be wheeling into victory lane if he had anything to say about it. He saw that his father was busy arguing with NASCAR officials about something, while Brian, Ty, and the others were checking on the fuel line. If they were lucky, they wouldn’t need to do nearly as many pit stops as the competition. 

Jessie’s mind however wasn’t fully on the race, part of him was thinking about Taiki. The letter he had sent her was weighing on his mind. Once he had gotten wind that NASCAR and Suzuka were going to take advantage of the interest from the Japanese market to set up a lottery system for tickets; He had gotten in touch with a NASCAR official to get a VIP ticket that he could send to Taiki. However, her showing up was another matter entirely, she had a really busy schedule and he assumed that there was a decent chance. It would make sense, she needed to train to be the Umamusume of the year, from what she had told him, it was one of the highest honors she could win, but only previously had ever been taken by those who specialized in medium and long distance races. It made sense, at least from what Taiki told him and Jessie’s own reading into the URA, the most popular races in Japan were all medium to long distance races. Taiki would need an absolutely dominating career in order to win a title like that, she didn’t have time for this. The thought made Jessie pull too hard on the wrench, he heard a big CLANG go as the metal wrench slammed into the engine block.

Brian then yelled at the loud clang “Hey Jessie, there's easier ways to pull out of a race than to try to wreck our engine.”

Jessie loudly replied “Buzz off Brian, you know damn well that was an accident.”

He looked at the door of the garage for a moment before mentally slapping himself. What was he expecting? Some Kentucky cowgirl to come walking in like she owned the place and asking him how he was doing? He had a race to win, that's what priority number one had to be. When he heard the door for the garage opened and a shadow cast down the floor near him. He thought nothing of it, he figured it was either a curious reporter or some other crew member. He got back to doing his mechanical adjustments and the world was simple again. Then he heard a soft “ahem” go through the air but he figured that Brian or his dad would talk to them. He then felt a tap of the shoulder, he wheeled around already talking. “You people already asked me for interviews and I told you to do it… Thursday night?”  The words died in his mouth as he looked at her.

It was Taiki, who smiled at his work. “Well I'll be, if it ain't the ‘Son of the South’ himself, fussin’ over his famous car!” Jessie's wrench fell from his hands but Taiki quickly grabbed it before it clattered to the floor. This wasn't real, it had to be some kind of dream, he pinched himself while she wasn't looking at him. No this wasn't a dream. Her blonde ponytail was messier than in the pictures, her blue eyes were stunning, it was like looking right into the ocean, maybe he could get himself lost in it. He shook his head and looked over her outfit. She wore a golden necklace, a yellow and brown plaid button up shirt, blue jeans with a bit of wear and tear to them, and cowboy boots.

He finally found words but they were more awkward than he liked. Of course he had thought through what he was going to say to her but actually saying something was a whole different matter entirely. “Wait, you actually showed up?” 

Taiki laughed and closed the distance getting very close to him. “Damn right I did! You think I was going to miss you tearing up a track in person?!” She looked over the car with a sense of curiosity, clearly trying to understand what parts interacted with what. “This car is a work of art Jessie, the fact you built this yourself… It's amazing.” 

Jessie rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly much more aware of the sweat on his T-shirt and the dirt and grime on him from working. “It's nothing, just what I spent most of my high school years doing in my free time with my buddies. I built the car but a lot of people could do that. I mean you can run a mile faster than a lot of people drive on the road, that's something impressive.”

He watched Taiki's brow furrowing at those words, she turned at him and put her hands on her hips. “Jessie, you don't get to sell yourself short around me. I read your letters back in the day. Every bit of this car was made by you, sourced by you. I'm fast sure, but I got a whole team behind me, I just need to move my legs. You need to deal with the toughest drivers in the league all by yourself.” 

 Jessie and Taiki looked at each other, each taking in the other before Taiki grabbed Jessie’s wrist and started to pull him away from Stonewall.

“I didn’t come all the way from Tokyo to deal with ya mopin’. You’re now getting signed up for Taiki’s special cheer up Jessie trip. Complete with food and tourism!”

Jessie was shocked and replied “Now hold on just a minute-” but the strong tug from Taiki silenced his complaints. He knew damn well that Umamusume were a hell of a lot stronger than humans.

“Your team can fix your car up, and you’re no use in a bad mood! There ain’t no foolin’ my eyes, you got all self conscious, and I’m not letting you put everything into these races!”

Jessie sighed “Fine, coulda given me a little warning if you wanted to drag me off on a date.”

He felt Taiki freeze for a moment and a blush go over his face before she went back on her course. She spoke with a hint of fluster in her voice, “Shut up Jessie!”

Jessie now had his turn to laugh. He let her drag her along through the fairgrounds around the Suzuka circuit and eventually led him out down the road in an easterly direction.

Jessie could feel her body tense for a moment, he figured she wanted to run but then heard her sigh “You had anything to eat today?”

Jessie put a hand to his chin and seriously thought about it, he knew she wouldn’t like his answer but honesty was always the best policy. “Well I don’t really know the food here or the quality of the stuff and I can’t risk food poisoning before the big race. The McDonald's-". 

Taiki wheeled around and Jessie winced “Oh no! You aren’t going to walk around and eat sadness wrapped in paper! No wonder you’re so down in the dumps, you’re away from everything…” 

She frowned, as if she knew what he was talking about. “I’ll cook for you if you’re so desperate for a taste of America!” 

Jessie held up his free hand, “Taiki don’t sweat it, really I’m going to be fine. You don’t need to go out of your way for me. You have enough to worry about.” 

Taiki shook her head “Now that I know what’s been going on, I’m going to be more worried if I don’t do something about it! You’re getting in a good mood, and you’re going to eat good food! You’ve been my best pal since the age of 10! I am not going to let you eat crappy food in a foreign country because you don’t want to deal with sickness! Now you’re coming with me or so help me I will put you on my back and run all the way back to Tracen.” She jabbed her left pointer finger right into Jessie’s chest, he winced a little since she clearly put a little force into it.

“Yeah.. yeah… I’ll have your cooking. What are you going to make?” He watched Taiki put her free hand to her chin, stroke it twice but then held her hand up in a pointer finger in a way that Jessie wondered that a cartoon lightbulb went off above her head.

“If you’re so focused on food like that, I’ll just make a barbecue for you. Steak! Hamburgers! Fries! Carrots!” The inclusion of carrots made Jessie raise an eyebrow but then realized that she was an Umamusume. Of course she’d want carrots. Was that stereotypical? Is it stereotypical if someone actually does the thing that’s being stereotyped? Jessie figured things like that fell under the purview of too many people, he solved practical problems.

He nodded “Yeah sure, you can cook for me to your hearts content. Are you happy now?”

Taiki looked at him and pulled him into a hug, it was a tight and crushing hug. She then spoke more softly “I’m really happy to have finally met a pal of mine. I just want to make sure you’re happy here. The last thing I need is my best pal not having fun the one time I get to actually see him.” Jessie felt Taiki’s hug get tighter as the girl continued on, he didn’t interrupt her. “You know how long I’ve wanted to hug you Jessie? Nine years of my gosh darn life! Getting letters from you for years and wanting to give you a big hug but never getting the chance!”

Jessie wrapped his arms around Taiki, “Yeah, it’s been hard for me too. Sorry I never actually really got the chance during the summer, I just had to be working to make the money for Stonewall. You had to work on the farm, it just never synced up schedule wise.” He patted her back two times before trying to back away. Taiki gave him another quick squeeze before moving away.

“Now you’re going to pay me back for your absence, we’re going to go to that Burger place, load up with food, and I’m going to treat you to a nice barbecue before your race on Sunday”.

The tone left no room for any argument and Jessie simply accepted it as the reality of the situation. Taiki was going to do what she thought was the best and Jessie would do what she asked. They walked along for another 15 minutes before arriving at a diner. The place had a Japanese name in Kanji that Jessie couldn’t even begin to figure out, but he could clearly tell the place was made in the style of an old school 1950s style American diner. He walked in with Taiki and they were guided to a table.

Jessie then looked over to Taiki “You know, you’ve been telling me in your letters about Tracen but honestly with the tapes you send me being all in Japanese. I can only see you run. How have you been dealing with that sort of thing?”

Taiki frowned and answered with a softer tone of voice “It’s hard being that far away, you’re surrounded by a language you don’t fully understand, there’s some places that you have a harder time going to if you’re a foreigner. I mean I got pals at Tracen  but I still remember how the wheat was grown, the livestock on the other part of the farm, and then my family. It’s fine, I know what I was signing up for Jessie.” Her tone of voice was almost mournful, her eyes drifted down and to the sides, and it made Jessie think about how far things were. Taiki knew Japanese but Jessie figured it still wasn’t the best to be one of the few foreigners in Tracen.

Jessie then replied as best he could, reaching a hand and putting it over hers to drag her back out of her own thoughts. “Just cause ya knew what you were signing up for doesn’t mean you can’t acknowledge there’s issues. You’re my pal, Taiki. Wouldn’t want you strugglin’ with something like that.” He watched the girl’s eyes brighten up a little.

“Glad to finally be meeting my friend. Sorry for dragging it all down with my own issues.”

Eventually a waiter arrived and took their drink orders, thankfully for Jessie he seemed to know the menu items in English. The waiter then asked what they wanted for food, looking at Jessie.

“Oh, I’ll just have a hamburger and some fries.”

Taiki then spoke also in English “Get me some hamburgers too, 30 of them, and 15 orders of fries.”

Jessie stared at her for a moment completely dumbfounded. Perhaps he had misheard, clearly there was something wrong with his head, he didn’t just hear her with full seriousness ask for 30 hamburgers and 15 orders of fries. Did she want leftovers for the rest of the month?

The waiter departed and said something in Japanese that Jessie didn’t understand.

“ウマ娘とその神に見捨てられたダイエット”

Despite the fact that Jessie didn’t speak the man's language, everything came across perfectly in the tone. Jessie also wondered how Taiki was able to eat that much, then it hit him like a hammer over his head. She had to run constantly, the amount of calories she was burning would be insane. He was such an idiot sometimes, he didn’t really know a lot of Umamusume, they weren’t very common in his state. He was shaken out of his wistful musings when Taiki spoke up.

“What’s going on in your head?”

Jessie chuckled, “That’s how you’re going to ask me?”

Taiki snorted “Yeah yeah, but seriously, what’s on your mind? Thinking of a girl you like?”

This topic again, Taiki had been asking Jessie that same sort of question for the past five years. Every single time Jessie told her the same thing, he hadn’t really been looking. Well there was Katie but he didn’t really want to think about her. It had been two years ago but it still didn’t have the best memories in his mind.

“I don’t really have anyone. I guess you could say I’m married to Stonewall. That car’s my ball and chain. I put a lot of money and time into it myself.”

Taiki responded in a tone that was slightly more downcast, one that if Jessie hadn’t been thinking about Katie he would have noticed.

“Oh, I see… I just thought a guy like you would have a girl by now.”

Jessie shrugged, “Well I did date a girl for like two weeks back in my high school. Really didn’t work out well, she was one why I was another. I told her I didn’t want it to continue, then she turned it into a whole thing. Said I was wastin’ my time with this, that I would never be worth the time of any woman if I focused on turning wrenches and steerin’ wheels. That was a rough night, made me not want to try again for a while.”

Taiki frowned and her brows furrowed “That girl wasn’t worth the air you breathe! You built that car yourself! Every single bolt, every single component! You told me everything in those letters when we were at school… I wanted so badly to help you, I wanted to see you smile and have hard work. Just the thought of some girl trying to say you didn’t have what it takes breaks my heart a little.”

Jessie shrugged “What are you going to do? It was years ago, figured I’d work on what I do best and hope to find someone differently. Honestly I think I liked the idea of a girlfriend more than I liked Katie really. I mean to an extent she had a point, she was the kinda girl who wanted to move off to California and end up with a nice lawyer type. I’m a racer who wants to stay in the South. We just didn’t mix. I think I need a woman who I can really level with before I get into a relationship.”

Taiki’s frown didn’t leave her face, her left hand was in a fist. “Regardless, she made you feel bad doing it. Even if she had a point you don’t just tear someone down over it. I wouldn’t like that if someone did that to me. So I guess you’re what? Waiting for a soulmate? Didn’t know you were such a sap Jessie.” Her expression relaxed as she finished up, her hand losing its tension, and now she was back to her happy go lucky smile.

Jessie looked to the side and spoke wistfully, letting the oldies song on the Jukebox play for a few minutes. He was checking to see what was going on in the kitchen. He saw some of the burgers and fries were done, but it’d easily be a half hour from now.

“Well not really a soulmate, just a girl who just gets me. Someone who pushes just as hard as I do, maybe not in the same way as a race car driver but knows that drive to just keep pushing. Some kind of dream they strive for, one that’s compatible of course but I think that’s the only kind of person I could see myself with. What about you Taiki? You thinking of anyone?”

If it weren’t for Jessie looking away, he would have noticed Taiki’s ears had been perked up and pointed right at him as he spoke. Now she was off her footing and she spoke softly, unsure of herself.

“I don’t know, I never really looked around. Most guys at my school weren’t interested in a girl like me.”

Now that caused Jessie to look back in surprise. Taiki continued,“I wasn’t anyone’s first pick back then, I had my big dumb heart caught up on something else completely. I want to run Jessie, more than anything. All I did was farm, take classes, and run in school. Now that I’m here? I can’t see myself with anyone here, they’re all so cool and different in their own ways. I can’t see myself flying solo Jessie. I’ll probably find someone when I go back home, but I’m not doing that until I win the Twinkle series.” 

Her head seemed to hang, Jessie knew how bad loneliness was for Taiki. He felt a pressure in the upper left side of his chest. Right in the heart he figured. He put a hand over Taiki’s and looked right into her blue eyes.

“You’re not really alone Taiki. I’ll always try my best to write to you, I’m sure you’ll make a home here. I’ll be happy to see you more often when you do win the Twinkle Series. Just know that even if I don’t understand anything you’re saying in those post race interviews or the race commentators, just know I’m giving you the biggest cheers I can muster.” In a moment, Jessie watched Taiki get a big smile, she pulled her hands back and held up her hands “With pals like you by my side Jessie? I could take on the entire world. Seeing people happy is what I want to do most. If I can make you happy for a moment from me pushing my legs, I’ll do it! I want you to know you do the same thing for me with your NASCAR races, maybe we can make people happy together sometime.”

Eventually the food arrived, the two Southerners ate heartily, Jessie paid as was the usual custom. He left the diner feeling full and his wallet feeling a lot lighter. They made plans to meet one more time before he raced. Apparently Taiki wanted to show him around Tracen. He set out with his eyes on victory and his heart beating just a little faster than usual.

Chapter Text

Fuchu, Tokyo Prefecture
Main entrance, Tracen Academy
Late November Junior Year
Two months until Shinzan Kinen

Taiki Shuttle lightly rapped her foot against the ground at the main entrance of Tracen Academy. She wore a really nice outfit today, a pink shirt with some frills on the ends where her biceps were, a rainbow hairband in her hair, white shorts, white shoes, and her usual messy hair was much more straight and even. The sun was shining on this Friday, she would have normally wanted to do this on Sunday but Jessie said he needed to do some kind of qualifying session. Apparently that’s how they decided the running order, it wasn’t like the starting gates she was used to out here. She smiled softly to herself but nervously looked down at her watch, it was still early but she felt oddly anxious. Eventually after what felt like an hour she saw Jessie walking down the road. His blonde hair, blue eyes, and distinctive outfit marked him out among the other humans in the area. He wore a light blue denim jacket, a red flannel shirt that had clearly seen some age, blue jeans, and some very worn out work boots.

Taiki realized she looked like she had dressed up much more in comparison. In a moment that annoying voice in the back of her head spoke up, was she trying to show off to him? Rubbing in that he didn’t have the pocket change to buy better clothes because every cent he had went into racing? Was she- Suddenly Taiki’s quiet doubts were silenced as he got closer and waved to her. “Hey Taiki! How’s it going? Might I say, those Kentucky boys didn’t know anything. Dress up like that more often and you’ll be bound to find a nice guy!” He spoke genuinely and made her happy but she felt some part of her chest twist in a way she didn’t have a name for yet.

She shook it off and put on her winning smile “Hey Jessie! Don’t worry, I got everything cleared up, you’re going to be my guest today. You’re in for a tour, meeting some of my pals and teammates, and a barbecue before you go off to win that pole position!”

Jessie blushed slightly and scratched the back of his neck before speaking “Wow… you’re really pulling out all the stops for me huh…”

Taiki felt like she didn’t need to put her smile on anymore, so she grabbed his hand and began walking him to the center. They passed through the various cherry blossom trees in the front. It was the fall so their leaves were the browns and yellows associated with the season. Eventually they ended up at a large fountain with three Umas, each of them carrying an urn that spilled forth water into the fountain. Taiki looked to see Jessie’s reaction, he raised an eyebrow.

“What exactly is this?” He said looking at Taiki confused.

She cleared her throat “Well the Japanese have the legend of the three goddesses, the primogenitors of Umamusume in their religion. Other girls at the academy come here to pay respects and such. Some say they get inspired by it. I did come here at the start of training and felt a little better.”

Jessie replied softly “Guess the place does look nice. Not sure about Japanese spiritualism though.”

Taiki shrugged, “We’re here cause I’m waiting for someone.”

As if on cue, they heard someone start running over. Taiki saw Meisho Doto, her best friend from Tracen come over. She wore her plain academy uniform and she clearly tried to stop in front of Jessie. However Meisho had clearly been going a little too fast, before a collision could happen, Taiki grabbed Meisho and got her to a dead stop.

Meisho Doto let out in Japanese.「S-sorry! No this is the complete wrong footing! Give me a second…」Taiki watched as Meisho Doto opened a notebook she had been carrying before speaking in slow and halting English “Hello… Jessie! I am Meisho Doto! Welcome to Tracen… Academy. This is Japan’s most famous academy for Umamusume. I hope to show you… around with Taiki. She talk about you… So much!”

Jessie smiled warmly and gave a few golf claps when Meisho finished. “Aww” he then spoke in his own halting Japanese in return「Thank you」Before turning to Taiki, her eyes widened a little now that attention was focused back on her. “Do you mind translating for me for a bit?” Taiki quickly nodded and would relay Jessie’s words into Japanese. “Your English was good. I’m glad to see that Taiki has good friends like you. She really talks about me?”

Taiki could feel the flush, she REALLY did not need Doto airing out all of her dirty laundry right now but dutifully translated to Doto. She could feel her tail swishing nervously back and forth. Doto nodded softly and opened up with that catlike smile of hers that now made Taiki a little nervous. “Thank you… thank you very much!” Doto’s ears twitched and she then spoke up again “I watched the race with Taiki on tape… Darlington?” Jessie looked at Taiki stunned. “Wait a minute, you watched that with Doto?” Doto quickly nodded and spoke up again, which Taiki now felt like was burying her own grave. “Yes! She look so happy when she see you win! She gave a big yell! You make her happy!” Taiki cleared her throat and tried to ignore the heat on her face.

“Let’s get going with the tour, okay everyone?”

The trio began on their tour of Tracen academy, first it was the main school building. She talked along with Doto and gave brief explanations of what was covered. If an Umamusume was accepted she could attend from middle school up until college education, which is what Taiki was doing now. What she really focused on was Jessie reacting to everything, she saw his eyes widened when they went to the swimming pools, tennis courts, basketball courts, gymnasium. Standing in that gym Jessie spoke words that shot into Taiki and pulled her fully out of her head. “You guys have so much, I work in a shed in comparison.” It was everything she dreaded, he had made his own car himself, through grit and determination and got into that sphere. She spoke less confidently “Yeah, I guess we do.” She trailed off at the end, watching him closely.

Jessie then surprised Taiki when he said “I like it! This is so cool! You're getting all of your potential! You deserve it Taiki! I remember back in 7th grade how hard it was for you to train back in the public schools in Kentucky. I'd have probably helped you make something if I had the chance. Nah that's stupid.” He then seemed to start thinking about it, as if what? He'd make her facilities himself? The idea seemed laughable, but then again, he had made himself a winning race car. The idea of that always stuck with her, reading those letters of him telling her how he had gotten one or two parts over months. That sort of tenacity had helped her when she felt like her legs couldn’t work. It’s probably why she felt this warm and fuzzy feeling in her chest when she was around him.

She then spoke up “Oh like how you made Stonewall? Gonna weld me up a gym?”

She watched Meisho look confused and speak in Japanese,「Stonewall? He made a wall?」

Taiki quickly shook her head and replied rapidly 「No, no, the car he has got is called Stonewall by the media」

Taiki then watched Meisho Doto turn to Jessie with wide eyes and spoke with surprise and a sense of awe “You make car? Yourself?” Jessie shrugged and spoke softly, as if he was in some way unconfident.

“I wanted to race, I raised the money doing jobs for my dad and from racing in the late model races in North Carolina. It took most of my time in high school to actually finish that car. I mean it ain’t that crazy. People have project cars all the time”.

Taiki frowned but didn’t let it be very visible. It was like Jessie was trying to talk down his own achievements. She didn’t respect that and she knew Jessie wouldn’t let her talk herself down like that either. He was always so supportive in his letters when she had her own issues about running or being lonely. Why didn’t he let himself have that same treatment? Boys were hard to figure out for Taiki. Jessie is not the least of them. She then realized that she had to go to that scrimmage race that Hana Toujou had set up with some of team Ridgil and team Spica. She snapped her fingers and grabbed Jessie by the arm, and she began to speak.

“Shoot, I completely forgot about the scrimmage! I’ll just have to run in this! I gotta get going, you’re coming with me!”

Jessie winced in pain, “Taiki!”

She then realized that Umamusume were stronger than humans and she’d probably dislocate his shoulder or worse if she dragged him. She then threw him over her in a fireman's carry and ran like her life depended on this to the track. She then spoke as she got into the track.

“Alright last stop of the tour! I gotta do a scrimmage race with the others! Watch me win! Alright byeeee!”

She dropped Jessie who almost spun for a bit before he grabbed the railing to catch himself, but now that was out of her mind as Taiki looked right at a very annoyed Hana Toujou. She pinched her brow and spoke in a tone of voice that made Taiki very nervous.

「Did you just forget about training today?! Don't answer that, you're going to the line. You're with Maruzensky and the opposition will be Silence Suzuka and Special Week. Get to it!」

Taiki nodded and moved to the line, giving one last lingering look to Jessie, who seemed completely disoriented. She then had her attention captured by the other Umamusume around her. They all wore their tracksuits unlike Taiki. Her outfit was more fit for being around the academy, maybe a G1 race if her normal outfit wasn’t good. She didn’t say pleasantries this time, no exchange of words. All that was in the air was the cold sense of duty, and she felt that burning desire rise up in her chest. The one she had felt since she was a little girl, the desire to run hard and to dig her boots into the soil and break it to her will. She would either win or have gone down as trying. She smiled and got into her ready position. The world was quiet for just a moment, but when the white flag came down to signal the start of the race. Taiki felt her heartbeat sound over and over in her head, as her feet began to hit the ground.

Suzuka sprinted out forward, as was her common style, with a special week hanging behind in the first lengths of the race. Taiki and Maruzensky were running in second and third. Part of Taiki wanted to push ahead now, but that would be rushing herself too much. If she did that there wouldn’t be enough gas in her tank to give it her all in the final stretches. So she hung back and let Suzuka stay in the lead. The turn began, she moved to the left in line with the white railing. This gave her the chance to look around for a moment, particularly at the stands. She saw the rest of the team watching but what caught her eye for a moment, what almost broke her focus was seeing that Jessie had been standing off to the side away from team Ridgil and Spica. It made sense, he was a foreigner to Japan and to Tracen academy, who would he even talk to? Taiki then watched as Symboli Rudolf, the student council president, walked over to the race car driver and started talking to him. Her gears almost started to turn wondering what they were thinking about, but she shut that down. She then refocused her thoughts back into the race.

The Runners were now in the middle of the turn, and the view ahead belonged to Suzuka. She was a length and a half ahead of Taiki, she had to make a move now or never. Taiki moved slightly to the right and started her sprint with her conserved energy. It felt like the air changed around her as she shot forward like a bullet from her revolver. Her feet began to hit the ground harder as she gained on Suzuka. In a moment, by the time there was 400 meters left to go, Taiki was side by side. She felt like her legs were starting to give out on her, like what was inside them alone wasn’t enough. A voice said in her head that second was good enough, that she should be happy to even be here at all. Then she heard the yells of people. Her team and Jessie cheering her on. A second wind came forward and she screamed as she entered the 200 meter mark. She pushed forward half a length from Suzuka. In a moment, the red flag dropped as Taiki Shuttle finished first in the scrimmage.

She let herself stop, she threw up her hands to the “crowd” which was really about a dozen Umas, two trainers, and one race car driver. Now she doubled over and heaved for air into her lungs. When someone came over and offered water, she thought it was Hishi Amazon again, but when she looked up it was Jessie smiling widely. He spoke with wonder in his eyes and awe in his voice.

“That was so cool! I actually got to see you run! In person! You were incredible…”

Taiki felt her mood soar, now it didn’t matter that Hana was probably going to chew her out for being late to training. She’d endure it all to see someone give her that look on Jessie’s face again because of her hard work.

Training wasn’t too bad afterwards, but Taiki counted down the minutes until it was over. As soon as it was done she told him to show up at Miho dorm. While he walked over she ran over to the cafeteria and grabbed a grill set. The staff was used to her doing this sort of thing by now as she commonly did it for special occasions or American holidays. She then grabbed a few bundles of Hamburgers, Fries, carrots, and she then grabbed some other supplies. In a half hour the grill was starting. There was some grease on her pants now, but Jessie didn’t seem to mind. His flannel shirt was put over one of the tables as he sipped a can of soda and made small talk with Taiki.

“Careful you don’t burn those burgers, you almost burned that race”

Taiki rolled her eyes and pointed the spatula at him accusingly. “You’ve been eating McDonald's! I at least put my soul into these!”

Jessie held up his hands as if she was pointing a sword right at his heart “Got me there cowgirl! These have been pretty good.”

Those words made Taiki’s tail swish with a sense of pride, and she flipped one burger with a flourish while looking right at Jessie. When the moment passed, Taiki went back to flipping burgers when she heard the voice of two Umamusume nearby talking, her ears perked up and focused towards them. It was Meisho Doto talking to Matikanefukukitaru, and Taiki could hear her name being brought up. Doto started first,「I heard that Taiki was able to beat Suzuka, Spe, and Maruzensky in the scrimmage today. If she keeps that up, the Shinzan Kinen is hers!」

Matikane looked over to Taiki 「It was a mile race. She’s so good at them she could have made her own debut without a trainer.」

Taiki smiled and looked over to Jessie, who was fiddling with a boom box and put on a country tape.

She then saw someone walk over to him and she rolled her eyes. The pink crown and studded earrings spoke of the “Overlord” or T.M. Opera O. Jessie had been eating one of Taiki’s burgers when the very spirited Umamusume made her presence known, speaking in surprisingly good English?

“Ah! Do my eyes deceive me? Is this the Jessie Jackson that our American Cowgirl speaks such high praise of? How nice it is for someone of such fame as you shall come to the academy where true champions are made!” She jutted her arm out to Taiki with the same theatrical displays that would be better suited for a Shakespearean play than a BBQ. “She says that you have built your own metallic beast! That is surely an achievement, this Stonewall! Like a great fortress to fend off the attackers!”

Taiki had to hold back her laughter as she saw Jessie raise an eyebrow, blink twice, and stunned into silence for a moment. It was the same reaction most who had no knowledge of Opera O would react. Jessie then chuckled and waved her off “Thanks for the praise? Stonewall is just a car ma’am. Took me a few years to scrounge together the money, and then a year to build the thing. Stonewall gets the job done, I always make sure of that.” Taiki felt conflicted, on one part she felt that nice warm feeling again at Jessie’s humility, but also she was so darn tired of hearing the guy talk down his achievements!

However, as if reading Taiki’s mind, Opera O responded in her own way.

“Your lack of pride is a weakness! You carved your own place in your highest league. Taiki says you won your first race, one of the crown jewels of your league! You built the car yourself! If you don’t see the talent that it takes, you are blind to the world. How can you win against others if you can’t see yourself?!”

Opera stopped and let her words hang. Jessie then nodded slowly.

“Huh, guess I didn’t think about it that way. Thanks… that helped me get out of my own head. Who are you anyway?”

Taiki lost her focus and went back into making burgers, steaks, carrots, and all the other Barbecue food of the event. She blushed as she realized that Meisho, Opera, and many of the others who were talking to Jessie all mentioned how much she talked about him. Ugh, she didn’t need Jessie to know that. She didn’t know why, but some part of her just revolted at the idea of him knowing that. What would he think of her? She knew it wasn’t what they meant, but the jokes from the others made it feel like they all thought she was some girl with a big crush! Jessie had just talked about that Katie girl, he wasn’t looking for some loud mouth Uma! She distracted her racing mind with her work, and kept the grill burning.

After a few hours, it was now night, most of the others had cleared out. Jessie and her cleaned up, just two paper plates, two burgers, and fries remained now. The country song was still playing. Jessie sighed contentedly and gazed out at the academy. “Thanks Taiki, you have some good pals. You also gave me the best meal I’ve had since leaving the states.”

Taiki smiled and turned to him, her energy returned to her “Mighty kind of ya! I just wanted to make you not feel lonely! Your letters always made me feel like I wasn’t!”

Jessie looked at her with soft blue eyes that seemed hard for Taiki to keep contact with now, his words were genuine.

“You gave me that Taiki, more than you could ever know…”

He then pulled her into a sudden hug that Taiki returned strongly. Jessie took a moment but he met her with similar enthusiasm, he was taller than her and Taiki felt like she was being wrapped in a nice warm blanket that stunk a little of grease and hard work. The hug was broken too soon for Taiki’s taste, but she felt like that if Jessie broke it after an hour she’d still complain.

“Glad to have friends like you. Hopefully I can win at Suzuka, but this is where I head off.”

Taiki smiled and let him leave. It wasn’t so bad, she’d see him where he belonged in two days, with a wheel in front of him and four wheels burning rubber underneath him. She walked back to her dorm, with a kick in her step and a fire in her heart. She was so happy to have a pal like Jessie.

Chapter Text

Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture
November 24th 1996
Race Day
NASCAR Thunder Special Suzuka 100 

Jessie Jackson had qualified in 6th place yesterday, squeezing out Dale Jarrett for that starting position. The car sat on the starting grid before the event began fully. He could smell the burnt asphalt from the practice sessions and qualifying event that was now seeping into the track like some rubbery form of water. He wore his helmet and looked around the starting grid watching the crews, drivers, and TV talking heads running around. He could feel the air starting to cool a little from the late fall. He looked out into the crowd, and according to his dad, there were about 40,000 people in attendance at the stadium. He could see a few American fans and hear some English, but the overwhelming number of the fans were Japanese. He could see Japanese flags flying among the crowd. It was a foreign country, he knew that much, but the asphalt felt the same no matter what part of the world you were in.

 Jessie took a breath and turned his gaze up past the grandstands and into the glass VIP suite that was far up and above, almost looming over the track and casting a shadow over some of the back of the stands. He couldn’t look in but he knew that one very spirited blonde girl was looking at him. He then gave a mock salute up to the crowd, even though he only meant it for one girl. He then hopped into the car and began his pre race checklist.

He heard his father come onto the headset in his helmet “Alright son, seat good? Engine working? Radio comms operational?”

 Jessie almost nodded but realized his dad was back on pit road and spoke into the microphone “Yeah dad, everything's fine, we went over this gear one hundred times. Everything is as close to perfect as we can get now. Is the team ready?”

 His father replied with a chuckle “Son, we’re getting the chance to win a NASCAR race that’s being held in Japan for the first time in the history of the series. We’re all ready to do our job, but we don’t think we’re going to have a pit stop. You’re going to be in the outside line. Now since I know this segment format isn’t like any other race so I want you to repeat this, what is the segment?”

Jessie rolled his eyes but knew his father was making sure his head was in the game, he replied with a sarcastic tone of voice “Alright sir, race is only 100 laps. Two segments, after 50 laps the top ten positions are reversed. Tenth becomes first and vice versa.”

 He heard Heather, his spotter, make commentary upon the racing format. “Alright Cowboy, you remember to stay in 6th. If we can maintain that for 50 laps then we can get you in 4th, you’ll be in a striking position for the win. Remember, you only need to lead for the final lap in order to win the race.”

 Jessie gave a soft “affirmative”. 

He could see some of the TV heads talking to some of the other drivers, they were going to start their lap in a few minutes. He hadn’t been selected for an interview today and that was fine by him. Talking to the cameras was never his strong suit, he had never been the most outgoing and social kid in school. 

He had a group of pals and that’s all he needed, the last thing he expected was putting out his words for anyone who wanted to watch ESPN today. He felt a pressure in his chest, rising through the front of his neck, and exhaled sharply at the idea. He never knew how Taiki did it, he had learned that she didn’t just do racing, they had to do concerts too! Who had the sense to make a girl run a track for one lap giving their all and then tell them to change their outfit and get ready to do a song and dance routine?! He then had to think about how they had to learn different choreographies depending on their finishing position. That sounded like a headache he would never want to stick himself into. If he was an Uma Musume like Taiki he’d still want to take NASCAR any day of the week. He’d rather let Stonewall do all the talking and singing for him. 

Eventually the TV crews left and the pace car rolled out. The command to fire the engines was given by Daniel Shields, the man in charge of the US Consulate in Osaka. His engine was brought into life as he went down the straightaway. The layout wasn’t even the full track, the East circuit that NASCAR was using was a little under half of the full three and a half mile track. A short message in memory of Elmo Langley was played on the speakers. He had been a NASCAR driver who had become the pace car driver from 1989 to 1996, only passing a day after Jessie had met with Taiki for the first time due to a heart attack. It was a sad note, but the sport would have to continue without him today. 

Jessie then didn’t see the pace car pull away, he then heard Heather speak into his helmet again through the radio.  “Race isn’t starting yet, someone’s got oil trouble near the S turns, Joe Bean, Number 03. It’ll probably be a lap or two to get him into the pits” 

“Got it, thanks for the heads up”

True to Heather’s word, it was only a lap or two before the Pace Car finally pulled away, and the race began. The roar of the engines was a noise that always shook Jessie to awareness, that he could never recreate anywhere else. The gear box was shifted from first, to second, third, and then finally fourth at a speed that would be impossible for a regular person to replicate easily. Many casual fans would probably expect the first few laps to be hotly contested, drivers racing as hard as they could. However that isn’t always true, sometimes you need to conserve fuel and tires, which is what Jessie was planning. The guys up in the front would probably be fighting for position, ironically hanging back and finishing the segment in the bottom half of the top ten would be technically ideal. However Jessie didn’t see the point of intentionally hanging back to tenth. Some deep part of his convictions told him it was like cheating. He had to be convinced in a very strong tone by his father to hold himself in 6th. If Jessie had his way, he would have tried to win both segments outright. 

The course going through the first new laps wasn’t completely alien to Jessie like how it was earlier, the long straightaway, the near tight turns one and two, but the 5 turns that made up the so called “S” turns were still a little surprising, you had to constantly go left to right until finally you hit the final turn heading back to the straightaway. Right back to where you started.

The racing wasn’t too hard for the first few laps, he was more focused on treading water and sticking to where he was in the field than trying to advance heavily. The hardest part of the course was Turn 1, he had to rapidly shift down from fourth gear to second to not get thrown into the sand traps. He was now behind Michael Waltrip, the Citgo sponsored car had fallen back a few positions for a reason Jessie didn’t quite understand. However he could hear Heather come onto the comms “Watch for Earnhardt, guy is gunning for the front group, just give him way if he tries anything, no Richmond repeat.”

Jessie once again gave a basic affirmative, keeping an eye in his rearview for the black #3. By lap 6, Jessie watched a plume of white smoke come out from Michael Waltrip who started rapidly falling back on the left hand of the straightaway. He got out of the mess and moved forward, able to clear his way from the incident. Heather’s voice came through again “Caution’s called, back down to pace car speed”. Jessie quickly shifted down to the proper gear and got into position. Now he was in 5th, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to move up one position but if Earnhardt wanted to try to win both segments he didn’t see a point in stopping him.

It took about 7 laps of caution in order to get the front straightaway cleaned up from the oil from waltrip, apparently the guy had messed up the transmission by not getting the gear right and overrevving the engine. Jessie eventually watched the pace car pull into the pits again and the green flag came down. The roar of the engines came alive again as the cars shot forward. Jessie followed suit, keeping his position. Eventually when Earnhardt came looking around for a position to advance around Lap 19, Jessie gave the right of way to him and took the outside line of Turn 1. 

The race was surprisingly clean, the only caution out so far had come from oil and engine trouble, but by lap 22 he started to eat his words. A driver by the name of Scott Gaylord from the Winston West series had spun out in the S turns and forced what Heather called a “corner caution”. This meant that he had to slow down in the S turns for a lap or two but nowhere else. However not one lap later he heard Heather’s voice again.

“Powers called a caution, Someone’s engine went out” 

Jessie let out an audible groan “You gotta be kidding me! Can we just do like 5 laps under green please? I swear no one knows how to make a car nowadays.” This was completely infuriating to him, at this rate he was going to spend a good portion of the race under caution. What a great showing of NASCAR to Japan! Mechanical nonsense, constant cautions, and a relatively unmoving field. He was pretty sure there had been no lead changes at all the entire race. If it weren’t for the segment change, Rusty Wallace might just lead for the next 80 laps and win the damn thing. It was another 7 laps under caution until they could move Mcgriff’s car off the track and the race could finally start back up. 

Finally when the race started Jessie could start to get back into the groove of things. It was the same stuff for the next seven laps, just treading water and making sure no one got past him. Then he heard something weird come up from Heather “Gordon’s taken the lead, Wallace is back to second.” That made Jessie almost raise an eyebrow under his helmet, Rusty had been leading for almost the entire day, why would he suddenly want to fall back and give up position? He must have been having some mechanical issue with the car, just another one on the list of two, maybe three now? He got his head back in the game and kept it up through the S turns again.

He then saw Rusty get passed again, losing second, third, and fourth in one run of the straightaway. Now he got what was going on, Rusty was taking advantage of the segment system, intentionally giving up position to get put back up front when the segment wrapped up in 10 laps. That really annoyed Jessie, he knew his father was making him do something similar but he hated it, and he hated Rusty more for going up front only to intentionally fall back. It was technically doing what the rules encouraged but it felt so cheap. He sighed and kept turning laps. Two of the drivers got spun either in the S turns or the first turn respectively, but it wasn’t enough to count for a caution, and one of the Japanese drivers had his engine die on him. 

Finally the flag came down for the segment and the pace car came out, leading the group to the pits. The break allowed Jessie to take off his helmet, Ty gave him a bottle of water which Jessie quickly drank in a single drawn out sip. He looked to his father and yelled out “So am I racing now or what?” His father sighed with a hint of annoyance at the smartassery of his kid. 

“Yes Jessie, you can race now, just be careful. You’ll be starting in fourth. You’ll take the outside, Rusty Wallace is on the inside. Johnny Benson and Terry Labonte are first and second. Just get in striking distance and try to make an opportunity happen. Remember, you’re racing against the best.”

Jessie nodded slowly and took in the information. Rusty Wallace was the best right now on the track, no doubt about it. Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt would be gunning from behind Jessie too, the only way out was to get up front and escape from that. Hopefully that wouldn’t be so hard. He took a look up to the VIP stand again, he couldn’t see into the glass but he could feel two eyes boring into his soul. He smiled a little at the thought, one of these days he needed to find the time to get to one of her races. He was pulled from his gaze as a Japanese woman walked over with a little notepad and a pen. She wore a white blazer, grey pants, and had a Uma shoe necklace. He was surprised, almost all the Japanese journalists were talking to Keiichi Tsuchiya, he was the Japanese driver who had been the best performing all race, just outside the top ten today. She then spoke in very good English.

“Hello, I’m Etsuko Otonashi from Twinkle Magazine. I was hoping to ask you a question or two.”

“Yeah sure, may I ask why you’re not talking to-,” but Jessie was cut off by the very spirited reporter before he could get a word in.

“My publication actually has very little to do with NASCAR. What interests me and the Twinkle Magazine is the URA.” That made Jessie raise an eyebrow, she was an Umamusume reporter then. What the hell was she doing at the Suzuka circuit then? Shouldn’t she be at some big racecourse somewhere else? What Jessie then noticed was Etsuko's smile, as if she just caught something. “You know what I’m talking about, and you were at Tracen academy two days ago. Why would a NASCAR driver who has no history with American Umamusume racing, much less the Japanese URA, want to visit Tracen academy?” 

That shook Jessie in a moment completely out of his competitive racing mind, what did this have to do with the race? How would he answer? He didn’t want to outright say it was Taiki, but he couldn’t just make something completely up either. God, what kind of question was that?

“Oh, I was visiting a friend. Old penpal of mine, nothing really important.” Jessie decided to answer evasively, he didn’t need to deal with this right now. She gave him an eye, but as if someone had answered his prayers, his dad walked over and quickly got over to Jessie, “Fire your engine, you’re pulling off in 30. Interview’s over.” Jessie was thankful and slapped his helmet back on. He had a race to try to win. The engines fired up again and the lines were reformed, he would finally be free to actually race now. When the green flag dropped Jessie threw down the pedal and shifted back into the proper gear. In one lap, Terry Labonte had passed Parsons and was now in the lead. Rusty Wallace had also passed Parsons by the second lap.

Soon on lap 53, Jessie saw the Pennzoil in his windshield on the straight away, Jessie ducked into an inside line and threw down the gas pedal, moving the car into a good position for the corner. This moved him up to third, he was in striking distance now, if he could just find the right moment, but then Jessie felt a bump on his back, shaking him out of the front, he checked his rearview and saw the black Goodwrench sponsored car filling it. Earnhardt was so close that Jessie could practically count the man’s mustache hairs! Jessie looked back forward as they went into the S turns. Earnhardt passed Jessie on the third of the S turns going on the outside line, this time completely cleanly. That was the paradox of Earnhardt, sometimes the guy would spin you out, bump you, or race you cleanly. It was a complete coin flip, but Jessie supposed that was just how things went sometimes.

In a few laps, he heard from Heather that Rusty had taken the lead again, as Earnhardt moved on Labonte for that second place. By lap 58 Jessie was in third, Earnhardt in second, and Wallace was leading. Jessie would keep trying to gain on Earnhardt and Wallace but he just wasn’t fast enough, for over 20 laps it was the same damn thing over and over. He’d gain a little and lose a little over and over, he could see that Jeff Gordon was even gaining on him. Jessie still didn’t get why some reporter asked him about Tracen of all things? Why not his actual racing career? Was he that novice? Then he heard Heather come onto the comms.

“Caution’s out, Fukuyama got dumped in the S turns. You’ve got 15 to go, make something happen.” Jessie saw the yellow lights come on. He got into line and waited for the car to be moved, and the race to restart. His mind drifted back to that day at Tracen two days ago. He remembered one conversation he had, not with Taiki but with the President. 

Fuchu, Tokyo Prefecture
Practice Track, Tracen Academy
November 22nd, 1996
Two days ago

Jessie had been reeling after Taiki ran about halfway through campus with him on her shoulder, and he finally caught his bearings. Bracing himself against the railing of the stands and stood up on his own power. He took a breath and looked as Taiki and the other girls were getting over to the part of the track where the starting line was. He looked to his side, there was a couple of others Umas and two human trainers. A guy with a lollipop in his mouth and a woman in a suit. He decided to give everyone a wide berth and looked out to the track. Then he heard the clack of boots or heels on the ground as someone seemed to be walking closer to him.

He looked to see a woman standing to the left of him with brown hair, darker brown on the front, and a white strand. It was a little weird but Umamusume were a little strange biologically. What mattered less to him was the woman’s appearance and more the sense of command that seemed to ooze off of her. He could see in the corner of his eye the trainers even seem to tense up around her. He got the impression that whoever he was talking to was very important. He had only seen something similar when he had been a high school freshman and he had seen Richard Petty during his tour in the 1992 season out at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The way that everyone knew he was the king, commanding the entire crowd with a look and a nod.

She spoke with a clear tone of voice, her English was alright but she had a clear Japanese accent and he could tell she had been taught English by British instructors. “So, you are Jessie Jackson. Taiki says a lot about you.” 

“Good things I hope”, Jessie said as he scratched the back of his neck nervously.

“Yes she does, she actually advocated quite strongly for American sports broadcasts at Tracen. Eventually she got most of the other students interested but it took a little work.” She had a soft smile as she spoke. “How did you two come into correspondence? Questioning Taiki has proved to be a fairly fruitless endeavor."

Jessie raised an eyebrow, “We’ve been pals for a while, penpals back in middle school. It was just nice to meet a girl that kinda got what I liked. We both liked racing, and we just never stopped talking. She went off into Tracen after high school ended and I built Stonewall and made my shot in NASCAR. Not much else to say.”

Symboli Rudolf then cut in at that moment “Not much to say? You must make your Stonewall’s quite short. You’re very good at making understatements.” At that moment he watched the flag drop for Taiki and his eyes drifted to her running. He smiled, he could finally watch her run. He heard Symboli Rudolf’s words as she spoke again. “She believes in you, don’t disappoint her.” 

As Jessie was caught up in his memories. The Green flag dropped for the lap. He slammed down on the accelerator. He was right on the rear of Rusty Wallace. He saw Dale Earnhardt go for the outside. The old veteran had made a mistake, his line was too open going into Turn 1. Jessie saw a chance and decided to throw caution to the wind. He went into that line, he heard a lot at that moment. The crash and squeal of metal against metal, Heather and his father screaming about going three wide on turn 1. However the voices faded, the metal stopped squealing. The turn was made, Dale Earnhardt had been sent into the sand traps around turn 1 but able to right himself before a caution was called. Jessie had been able to use Dale Earnhardt’s car as something similar to a stop gap or ramp without having to break or use the steering wheel to turn meaning deceleration wasn’t as necessary, allowing him to make a better exit coming into the S turns. He was able to edge out Rusty Wallace. 

When Jessie was in the front straightaway, he was able to get a solid lead and was now leading the race. He saw caution come out again, Heather said that the 23 car spun out in the S turns. The field would be stacked up again. Apparently he hadn’t sustained too much damage from it at least visually. The car felt fine to Jessie, maybe this wasn’t so bad. Green came out and he shot forward, now he was able to use his usual tactics of defensive blocking, making Rusty Wallace have to constantly go back and forth between trying the outside or inside line. For the next ten laps it was just that, Jessie watching his rearview mirror and going back and forth. The way in front of him was open. 

In lap 95, when he was so close, a caution came out again. For Scott Gaylord, again, who had spun out Robby Gordon. Jessie was waiting for the green, which came down for the final lap. Jessie shot forward like a cannon, when it looked like a final battle would happen between him and Rusty Wallace, Jeff Gordon in third was constantly pushing into Wallace, making the two of them focus on each other. This gave Jessie the chance to roll through the S turns and take the final corner into the straight away, he was a length ahead when he crossed the finish line and took the checkered flag. He slowed down and began to take a lap to let the other cars pass by. A NASCAR employee handed him a pole which Jessie used for his victory lap, the flags on it were the American flag and the Japanese flag. He spun around on the straight away, got out of the car, and held the banner up high for the roaring crowd from the roof of Stonewall.

He looked up to the stands and winked in the direction of the VIP stands. He hoped she had been watching and he had given her something worthwhile. His crew came over and he went into the usual post victory celebrations, long into the night, with Sake and Beer flowing. He knew they’d have to pack up everything and head back to the states. He had about two months to get some better sponsors for his first full time season in NASCAR. That meant he’d have to start at Daytona. He’d have to also stay up to watch the Shinzan Kinen, but he figured Pop wouldn’t mind.

Chapter Text

Fuchu, Tokyo Prefecture
Miho Dorm, Tracen Academy
Late December, Junior Year

Two weeks until the Shinzan Kinen

It was a late and frosty night in Tokyo, no snow on the ground, but that was okay. Taiki took a breath in and took in the smell of it all, cinnamon, pine needles, and the smell of the oven, and the gas from the burners on top. Holiday lights had been taken from the supply closet and now decorated the common room, a tree had been brought in and it had been decorated, with a big star at the top. It hadn’t been just Taiki, once she had gotten most of the others into the idea, Team Rigil had chipped in. It was pretty easy to get things from the supply closets when you had the Student council, and the leaders of both the dorms on a first name basis.

She could hear them now, she could hear T. M. Opera O giving a rendition of Silent Night in a style that sounded fit for a theatre and with the spotlight right on her. Meisho Doto was trying to hang up a wreath, and Hishi Amazon was having her fourth cookie. It was nice but it wasn’t the same as her family for Taiki. When she thought of Christmas she imagined snow on the ground, dinner with her family, and getting packed in with half the county into a tiny church for services. She did smile, at least she wasn’t completely alone, she had her friends here. 

Taiki glanced around and saw that Maruzensky and Air Groove were having a spirited dialogue, however it was too far away to make anything out specifically. Symboli Rudolf had a mug of hot cocoa in her hand as she had Tokai Teio of team Spica going on and on about her dreams to win the Triple Crown. Matikanefukukitaru was also fortune telling for any who would be willing to talk to the girl. Taiki’s eyes then drifted to the mail table next to the door. Sitting there was a thick envelope from that familiar address. Lexington, North Carolina, the home of Jessie Jackson. It was likely his christmas gift to her so she held off on opening it until the party was in full swing.

She heard a very spirited voice start up, the common room door banged open as Goldship came in with Meijiro Mcqueen. She had cooked Yakisoba in one arm and tinsel in the other.

“Hello it’s I, the esteemed Goldshi! I have some food and other stuff!” Which she unceremoniously dropped onto the table. Taiki looked as Goldship smiled widely as she looked at Taiki, as if daring her to respond. However Taiki didn’t reply, she was used to the antics of this wild Uma musume. This caused Goldship to then turn her gaze around, and spot the mail. She then ran over to it and repeated with scarily good English.

“Jessie… Jackson, Oh! It’s addressed to Taiki!”

She grabbed it and held it high, as if she had discovered some kind of ancient treasure map in a pirate movie. Now she switched back to her Japanese which constantly switched in tone and style. She looked at her and took a questioning gaze, stroking her chin.

“This letter could be dangerous, some kind of plot to damage Tracen Academy and harm our fellows… Maybe even a plot by the United States of America to use our own Taiki Shuttle as an unwilling spy! Fret not! Sherlock Goldshi is on the scene!” 

She went to open it, and poured out the contents, a red diecast of Stonewall clattering against the table, a patch of a checkered flag, and finally a letter.

“None of y’all are touching that letter! It’s PRIVATE, got it?!” Taiki yelled with a volume she didn’t intend, and her tail lashed.

She then noticed a lot of the eyes had turned to her, she saw Opera O’s eye on her gleaming like a stage light was shining on her, Meisho Doto’s tail flicked, and even Symboli Rudolf raised an eyebrow.

Goldship then proclaimed like an actor at a play. Clearing her throat

“Ahem! I shall now present this missive from the American South! In what clearly is the spirit of the letter, a DRAMATIC CONFESSION OF THE HERO!”

Taiki felt her face light up, if it weren’t for the food on the stove, she would have rushed Goldship down and snatched it from her hands.  She began to speak in a melodramatic tone, as if some Samurai poet from a couple hundred years ago.

“Dear Taiki, It is I, your humble ‘gearhead’, writing from the snow-swept plains of the American South!” Goldship swooned, clutching her chest.

“A storm rages outside my garage, but I am warmed by your memory at Suzuka and Tracen!”

Taiki felt a bile rising in the back of her throat, the idea of hearing her… penpals words being taken and twisted. It felt like Jessie’s voice was being stolen. She shrieked with her ears flat against her head.

“THAT AIN’T WHAT IT SAYS!”

“Thank you my fair maiden for showing me your great kingdom of Umamusume! Thank you for gracing my victory with your radiant presence!”

Taiki lunged at Goldship, but the trickster sidestepped Taiki and kept reading, now sounding like the narrator of a Kabuki theatre.

“‘I, a humble wrench-turner, was blessed to witness your GLORIOUS SPRINT! Like a comet across the night sky! A SHOOTING STAR in cowboy boots!’”

"THAT'S IT!"

Taiki tried again to lunge. This time she got a hold on Goldship and forced her down to the ground, she snatched the letter from Goldship and had a clear sense of annoyance on her face.  “Don’t ever do that again!” She said with a tone that cracked through the room like a starting pistol. She saw Air Groove start to walk over to her and Goldship.

Taiki then got up and actually read the letter to herself, what Jessie’s words actually were. Not Goldship's dramatic interpretations of it. She read it through silently and could now fully place his voice on it. She saw that there was a stain on the letter that made it stink of motor oil. Most girls would have found it gross or strange, but it just made Taiki smile. He must have been hard at work with Stonewall or other cars while writing this. It reminded the girl of a story he told her back when he was 15 in a letter, someone had an issue with their transmission in their ford truck. Jessie spent most of Christmas eve making the second and fourth gear work for the man. That kind and hard working attitude was what drew her to him. 

“Dear Taiki,
It’s me again, writing to you from the snowy south. There was a snow storm at the start of the month and by the time you’re reading this there’s going to be another one after that. First off, I think some thank yous and congratulations are in order. Thank you for giving me a chance to experience Japan with one of my best friends. Thank you for showing me the awesome academy you attend. Thank you for showing up to the race. You helped me a lot out there, even if you don’t know it. Secondly, I’ve been truly blessed. I got some sponsorships for Daytona, and I’ve been hard at work repairing Stonewall and getting her set up for the biggest race in NASCAR. Last off, I’m going to see your race, you’ve been doing it for a while from what I can tell. I was able to find a place with a satellite tv connection so I’ll probably be up at 3 AM watching you run. I’ll have to keep quiet (despite my wishes) in order to not get a noise complaint. I’m just happy I got to actually see your world. Tracen Academy, not just in your letters but actually seeing it! It was a great joy to actually see you run, to put your all into everything. I still can’t get that image of your flying down the track like a shooting star out of mind. I’m glad a girl like you was willing to do all of that for a gearhead like me. I’ll try my best to keep the letters coming with the season starting soon. Just want you to know that if you get homesick, that you’ll have someone who will want to help you. You have great friends over there, and I’ll always try my best to be there for you.

Your friend,
Jessie”

She read it voraciously and then looked up, they were all staring at her as Taiki realized her tail was swishing back and forth. She saw T. M. Opera O brushing away a theatrical tear from her eye.

“Clearly, this is nothing short of the finest of passions! A dramatic confession of a man who seeks the heart of Taiki. However, from what I can see she has already surrendered it! A knight and her squire, written in the stars-”

Taiki cut her off, she knew exactly what historical reference Opera O was making. Squires were those humans who acted as support staff for the historical Uma musume who called themselves knights. It caused a lot of problems later on, as Umamusume in the West were often stereotyped as coming from old nobility. That was not what she needed to have invoked, the last thing she wanted to be was lording over him and demanding him to serve her. She also wasn't going to surrender her damn heart to the man. That's not what he needed right now, he had told her in that diner about Katie and all of the trouble she had been. He had to focus on Stonewall, not a girlfriend.

“NO!” She shouted “I ain’t some damn high falutin’ knight asking him to shine my damn armor! Y'all got that?!” Her accent came out more strongly now. “I just wanna be a girl around him… a friend.” She then noticed all of them were looking at her. She now felt really bad, she had killed the mood. They just wanted to have fun. “Sorry bout that, just got carried away”.

Meisho Doto shook her head “I’m sorry Goldship shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have… I mean… I’ll get you another cookie!” The girl ran off and did just that. Taiki was quickly handed some milk and cookies by the very timid girl that warmed Taiki's heart. Taiki thanked her friend and looked around the room, watching things slowly return to normal. The only oddity was the absence of Meijiro Dober from the party. Taiki knew just where she would be then.

Taiki marched off to her dorm room and saw the girl sitting down and reading some manga. Taiki knew it was weird to read in America but in Japan it was even weirder to not read it. She did like Trigun but most of them didn’t really speak to her. Not enough guns and cool Umamusume for her taste, Western movies were more of her style. She crossed her arms and had a flat expression when looking at Dober. “Why ain’t you at the party? There’s no men so you can’t make that excuse.”

Dober looked to the side “I… I don’t want to, you don’t need to worry about me.”

Taiki grumbled and grabbed the girl and started carrying her much like how she carried Jessie. “Yeah wrong answer, it’s Christmas, you hang out with your family. At least talk to your sister.” She dragged the girl into the party room and dropped her off. Now the party felt more complete, but with a hole that Taiki couldn’t feel so easily. She saw Dober talking to Mcqueen and Air Groove, Teio and Rudolf, Goldship talking to Matikanefukukitaru, and lastly Meshio Doto and T. M. Opera O talking to each other. She let herself fall back into the party atmosphere and talked to Amazon for a while, she was a fellow Kentuckian and native of Lexington, which made conversation much easier. They spoke about home with the only other person in the room who knew exactly what they were talking about. While she was a city girl, that didn't seem to matter so much anymore. 

After a few hours, closing time came, and Taiki was left looking out of the balcony of the Common room. She held up the car to the moon, she knew now she had to do well at the Shinzan Kinen. He had performed under her gaze, but maybe she could do the same with him watching on some TV in his garage at 3AM.

She grabbed a sewing kit, some paper for her own letter, and planned out buying something tomorrow. She'd start on a gift and surprise that was going to knock Jessie’s socks off.

Chapter Text

Lexington, North Carolina
The Pine Tree Bar
January 5th, 1997

One month until the Daytona 500

It was a little nippy outside when Jessie had come into the bar. Snow was still on the ground from the snowstorm a week ago. The bar was empty, well almost empty. There was one guy who was working the bar who gave Jessie a look. The man was old, his skin covered with those brown freckles that start stretching over his loose skin. The man had clearly been a much larger guy in his younger days.

“Alright Jackson, you got the whole place to yourself. Don’t know why you’re watching this Jap nonsense.”

That provoked an eye roll and a suppressed groan from Jessie, it’s why he never liked dealing with older people about this stuff. All they remembered when they heard the word “Japan” was Pearl Harbor and the memories they had of the Pacific theatre. He had heard all of those kinds of stories all the time dealing with old men in the garage talking when they needed their cars fixed.

“Watching it for a pal of mine Mr. Cooper, she’s from Kentucky. She just went to Tracen academy for the ride is all. She’s as American as me and you.”

“Why Tracen? She’s from Kentucky, she’d have the ability to get into the Triple Crown Academy Network. Practically would have been born next to the Churchill Downs Academy.”

Jessie shrugged, and grabbed a bottle of Budweiser and flicked the cap off.

“She got a ride after winning her high school state championships. Full expenses paid and everything. I can’t blame her at all, I guess she was fine with going abroad.”

Mr. Cooper turned on the TV and flipped to the appropriate channel.

“Remember, this is only for a favor.”

Jessie smirked “Next time, make sure your grandson doesn’t change up his Subaru again. I had to go digging around under his hood for 3 hours because the kid decided to DIY modify his starter.”

That job had not been fun to do, Jessie thought it would be a quick 15 minute check but it turned into a three hour nightmare job that made him want to punch the engine. Mr. Cooper rolled his eyes.

“That’s what I was saying! ‘Tyler, don't buy that Subaru! Tyler, that Subaru is a bad idea!’ Then he told me ‘Nah grandpa it’ll be great! Subaru’s are reliable and they’re easy to work on’. Now I gotta lend my Satellite TV subscription to you to watch some damn filly race on the other side of the planet at three in the morning!”

Jessie chuckled before sipping the Budweiser. “Sorry sir but deal's a deal. Now hush, the program is coming on!”

The music started and it was a cloudy day in Japan. It started with an aerial shot of the track. Jessie shuddered at the strange resemblance to Darlington. It had slightly elongated turns 3 and 4 which gave the track that same kind of egg shape from a bird's eye view. The track had layers like a sandwich, with an outer turf, dirt in the middle, and an inner turf. According to Taiki, that was how every single track in the URA circuit worked, in order to balance turf and dirt races. Jessie almost wondered if he could run stonewall for a lap in the dirt part of the track but shoved off the idea. While it would be funny, it probably wouldn’t ever get approved.

The words came up “SHINZAN KINEN” then “KYOTO, TURF, 1600M”. Triumphant trumpet music was playing as if a king was going to be announced. An Uma shoe in bronze appeared with “G3” in the center to mark the grade of the course. Then the commentators started talking, the whole thing was in Japanese and Jessie couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It wasn’t his fault, the only foreign language they taught at his school was Spanish.

He pulled out a letter from his jacket and laid it down on the bar and opened it up. It had come into the mail in a priority package, he hadn’t the time to open it up yet, but the letter had written on the back “open during pre race” and he respected Taiki’s wishes.

Inside he found a paper letter and a picture. The picture showed what was some kind of Christmas event. It was some kind of common room, probably at her dorm with a tree, gifts, and lights strung up. He saw Taiki front and center in the picture. She wore her casual clothing he had saw before. The plaid shirt and jeans, but what was more of note was what she had in her hands. One of the hands made the classic finger gun pose like before, while one of the others held up the Diecast Stonewall like a trophy. She was winking at the camera with a hint of pink dusting her cheeks, she probably had a little to drink by Jessie’s guess, that was the only real explanation he could think of. He turned the picture and saw a caption written in red sharpie.

“BANG! Locked and loaded with my eye on you, my big winner!- T.S”

He then noticed Mr. Cooper looked over his shoulder.

“Some kind of pal you got there Jessie.” He said with the kind of tone that Jessie could just tell had a shit eating grin on the guy's face. It was the same joke he had gotten from his friends since High School.

“She’s just a friend, it ain’t like that.” He said it again, how obvious was it? The girl would never look at him like that anyway. She had races to do and she needed to become Umamusume of the year, she was just happy to cheer him on. People never let a guy and a girl just be friends nowadays. It was always the assumption that if you talked to a girl you were two steps away from dating. Maybe he thought Taiki would make a good girlfriend to someone later on, but it wouldn’t be him. Probably someone closer to home. She said it herself back in the diner, probably some Kentucky farm boy with a nice truck and was the captain of the football team. That’s what Taiki deserved, not some grease stained mechanic who got a place in NASCAR by the skin of his teeth.

He opened the letter and took a look inside, always flicking back to the television. Right now it was on an ad for some cartoon with a blue haired girl.

“Dear Jessie,

I wanted to write when I’m not busy celebrating the holidays with the rest of my team to take the time to think about you. The way you told me about how happy you were to feel at home in Japan warms my heart in a way that’s hard for me to put into words, much less write them down! As for calling me a shooting star, I hope I can be that for you every day. When I win this race and every single one after them, I’ll be sure to be absolutely radiant! I want to tell you before I go off into the starting gate that your career in NASCAR gave me a lot to look forward to. Seeing my best friend go into America's greatest league with his own car and win in Japan was amazing to see. That’s what I’ve always wanted to see since you told me about your dreams back in 6th grade. You’re the only guy who I can say who honestly gets that drive. All of us Umamusume know it, that desire to run. Just make sure to watch me shine, and that’s all I’ll ever need from you.

Always yours,
Taiki Shuttle”

That was the first time in 9 years she signed off her letters any differently. He figured though that she must have gotten nerves before competing in Japan’s highest league, however he felt his chest twinge in a way he couldn’t exactly place. He put the letter down and looked back at the TV, showing a stage showing off the various Umamusume, they didn’t have the same flashy outfits as they did in G1 races. It was simple shirts, shorts, and racing bibs. Eventually Taiki Shuttle stepped onto the stage. Jessie saw that according to the announcers she was apparently the favorite. At least that’s what he assumed the No.1 under her name meant. The girls then walked off to the starting gates. Once arrived they were loaded one by one by URA racing staff.

「第3人気はナリタタイシンです。」

one of the announcers said. The girl on screen looked like a damn midget to Jessie.

The camera shifted to another girl with dark red hair, red eyes, and pigtails using two blue Scrunchies. The girl’s mood was dour. 「この順位に満足していないかもしれませんが、第2人気はダイワスカーレットです。」

Lastly the camera showed Taiki, who waved at the camera with both of her hands.
「スタートを力強く待つ、今日の1番人気、タイキシャトル！」

He smiled warmly as soon as she was on the screen. He saw her looking dead into the camera with a smile. It was almost like for a moment, across the pacific ocean, they shared a gaze. A private moment before her race.

Then the camera feed switched off the gate shown from the right hand side. For a few moments, the world was still. Jessie’s beer bottle was forgotten and was sweating into the bar table. Even Mr. Cooper seemed to respect the silence as in a moment, the gate opened.

The Umas all shot out their gates and began running, the Shinzan Kinen had begun. Jessie kept his eyes on Taiki, who had started in a gate on the right hand side of the track. She had runners on the outside and the inside as no one had time to get into lines.
「スタートしました！全ランナーから素晴らしいスタートです！」The announcer said in a very excited tone. Jessie figured the crowd needed that kind of intensity.

He then saw the numbers show up on the top of the screen and tried to think of which one was on Taiki’s bib. He remembered now, 15. He then saw that Taiki was in second. His eyes ducked back down and saw that she was chasing down some girl out front. That girl was a nobody to Jessie, what he cared about was the blonde girl running her down.

There was a slope going up before the runners entered into turn 3. Jessie saw the group all bunched up. It was like Talladega, or how Daytona was going to be, all of the drivers were close, though he figured that there weren’t massive crashes or race ruining injuries in these races, so that was good.

They began turning to the right as they entered the third turn and began to hit a down slope. He watched Taiki start to gain on the front runner. Two lengths, one length, finally half a length at the start of turn four. He then spoke up, mostly to himself but as if he was her spotter.

“Come on, push it now, you got one inside, you have an open line on the outside.”

Then he watched her run out in the same way she did in the scrimmage, he saw her face tense and let out what he assumed was some kind of yell. She pushed forward then went into the fourth corner. She matched the front runner, then passed her.

By the time they were out of the fourth corner. Taiki was ahead by a length. There were 400 meters left.

200 Meters left, two lengths ahead.

100 Meters, three lengths.

Finish line. Four Lengths.

The camera focused on her as she turned to the side and held out her arm and began waving to the crowd with a big open smile on her face. Jessie’s stool creaked as he jumped out.

“HELL YEAH! Let’s go!”

Mr. Cooper gave him a sideways look “Calm down kid, it’s 3 in the morning…” 

Jessie let out a cough “Sorry sir, won’t happen again sir.”

Mr. Cooper shook his head “Hey she’s your pal, she did make a pretty impressive run. Now I know why half the boys in the Corps wanted to be assigned to a Battalion with one of them in it.”

After that he saw Taiki have a hat on, it was her cowboy hat from her normal racewear but he saw something off, sewn into the right side of it, he saw the patch from the checkered flag he had sent her. She took it off, and held the hat out to the camera as she said.

“Yes! I’m a winner!”

There was an interview being done with Taiki as the subject, by that same reporter that asked him at Suzuka, Etsuko Otonashi. All of the questions were in Japanese which Jessie didn’t understand at all.

However, one answer was made in English by Taiki.

“I got one guy who I hope is watching, I want to tell him not to change that channel. I’ll see him race hard in his own event in a month!”

That shook him out of his drowsiness. That answer kept on his mind when he thanked Mr. Cooper for his help, and when he arrived back home.


Five hours later, Jessie woke up and made himself breakfast, and saw his dad was on the phone. He then turned to Jessie.

“Thought it was a Telemarketer, you got a call kid. Someone wants to sponsor you for the next Special Suzuka.”

Jessie raised an eyebrow. He already had a good list of sponsors for the 1997 season. Chick Fil-a, Bojangles, and a few other places had chipped in some money. It wasn’t ideal but he didn’t have a team backing him, he would never be in ideal circumstances.

“Hello, Jessie Jackson speaking”

“Hello, Mr. Jackson! This is director Yayoi Akiwawa of Tracen Academy. I was hoping to discuss sponsoring you and your team for the 1997 NASCAR Thunder Special Suzuka.” The fiery voice of the woman caught him off guard, her Japanese accent was practically indistinguishable for Jessie.

“Yeah, sure. I’d be willing to be sponsored by you. What’s the deal?”

“It is quite simple, the main thing will be a repaint of the car for the single event, but the rest will come up in the contract we’ll fax to the garage. Do you agree with this?”

“Yes!” Jessie immediately agreed, “Main thing for me is covering the costs of moving to Japan for the event-”


“Done”, the director said “Tracen has a very powerful purse, $100,000 to transport your team back and forth and cover the car in Japan won’t be hard at all.”

“Wonderful, Give Taiki my regards.”

“Ah, so that article in the Twinkle Magazine wasn’t completely making things up.”

“What Article?”

“The work of Etsuko Otonashi, apparently according to her, you visited the academy earlier and are friends with Taiki Shuttle. That and your performance is how you came to our attention.”

“Ah, alright, well if that’s all I hope you have a good rest of your day.”

The director yawned, “Yes, have a good day yourself.”

The line hung up.

Jessie had a long day today, he needed to look over that contract and work on getting Stonewall ready for Super Speedways.

Chapter Text

Fuchu, Tokyo Prefecture
Miho Dorm, Tracen Academy
Late February, Classic Year
3 months until the NHK Mile Cup

The dorm was dead, there wasn’t any noise at 2:47 in the morning. The TV was turned on, its blue light showing into the common room. Every Uma in the dorm had already gone to bed. Even Hishi Amazon, the dorm leader, would have turned in.

Taiki never felt more awake, practically vibrating with excitement.

She wore pajamas, a nice green pair with plenty of stars in them. She had them since she was in High school. In one hand she had the tv remote held like a starting pistol, just waiting for those last few minutes to tick by. In the other she held the Diecast of Stonewall in her hand. That little toy car was now a good luck charm of hers, she’d keep it in her bag, roll it back and forth on tables when she was bored, and sometimes would just look at it. 

She had been counting down the hour until this moment since yesterday. The Satellite feed flickered for a moment, but it was showing a strong hold of CBS. Ken Squier and two former racers were giving some pre race commentary. Then she saw a shot of the pit lane, 15 spots from the leader was Jessie Jackson’s red-white-and blue Ford Thunderbird. It gleamed under the Florida sun.

She took a breath and could just imagine being at that track. Like she had been back in Suzuka. She could feel her tail swishing back and forth and wished she could just tape the darn thing to her leg sometimes. It would be less embarrassing, ever since the party she now had to deal with getting called “Mrs. Jackson” by half the bleedin’ academy. She hated that, hated how that sounded…

She was shaken from her daydreaming when the door for the common room slammed open. She then heard a sound that made her excited and filled her with dread in equal measure. The boots of Symboli Rudolf on the floor.

She turned slowly, with a grin on her face.

“Hey Prez, wanna watch-”

“Shuttle.”

The Student Council president was wearing her academy uniform, her hair still perfect even at three in the morning. She held a clipboard in her hand like it was a bladed knife. Taiki gulped involuntarily.

“It’s the Daytona 500, it’s the biggest race in NASCAR. Jessie’s start of his sea-”

“I’m aware” Rudolf replied, her tone was calm. The kind of calm that made the air feel colder. “Your grades in Japanese Literature dropped by 10 percentage points. Your 400m split times in practices have degraded. Our trainer has also reported that you spent the last 40 minutes of our training session that you should be using to stretch, to try to find information about this race. So I ask you now, is Tracen Academy a joke to you?”

Taiki opened the mouth, closed it, and felt her face burn, her ears flattening against her head.

“You seem to think that watching foreign sports is a right. It is a privilege. I am therefore placing a restriction for specifically you on all non URA sports broadcasts. Effective immediately until after the NHK Mile Cup on May 4th. That includes live feeds, taped replays, or group viewings in the common room.”

Taiki felt her grip on her remote grow tighter, her knuckles turning white from the tension.

“You can’t just– That’s three whole months! He watched me race! He said in a letter! Stayed up until 3 AM! What kinda friend would that make me?! He did all of that for me!”

“The kind of friend that repays his dedication with hard work. By being the best possible version of yourself when you step onto the track.” Rudolf answered in a harsh tone, but not unsympathetic. “Distraction is something you can ill afford. You want to be Umamusume of the year? It isn’t just about being deserving, it’s about being worthy.”

Taiki’s tail lashed out, if a bowl or lamp had been to her left, Taiki was sure the force would have sent it tumbling onto the ground and shattering into a million pieces.

Rudolf softened, just a bit. “I do not do this to be cruel, Shuttle. I am doing this because you have someone who believes in you. Be worthy of his gaze. You will thank me later.”

Taiki hit the power button, she submitted to this. She felt every part of her screaming out in despair, rage, and sorrow. What could she do? Rudolf was the president.

Rudolf turned to leave and paused at the door.

“That TV will remain off. If you circumvent this rule, I might take further action.”

The door shut with a finality worthy of the command of a sovereign.

For five seconds, Taiki Shuttle didn’t breathe.

Then she let out the air in her lungs. It sounded like a snarl. She spun and hurled the remote across the room. It bounced off a cushion and landed on the carpet harmlessly. She could have lied to herself, and said she was fine, but she knew better than that.

She was picturing Jessie right now, getting the command to start his engines. He probably thought she was watching. Maybe scanning the VIP box like she’d have shown up like it was Suzuka. Maybe he’d be waiting for a letter from her about his races.

 She had promised him she’d watch. 

Now she was stuck in radio silence. She stalked the balcony doors and threw them open. She stepped out into the freezing February air. The common room fell into that same silence as the rest of the dorm.

She closed the doors behind her and stepped to the railing. The sky was almost cruelly full of stars. For the first time she had ever seen them in Tokyo. Taiki gripped the railing and could hear the metal groan at the force she was putting into holding it. Somewhere in Florida, her best friend was about to race at 200 miles per hour around a track and she couldn’t even watch.

What if he got hurt?

How would she even know?

Taiki could feel the irony deep in her soul. He had less than her, he’d be practically half living out of some racing trailer for the better part of the next year and he built the car he drives himself. Even then he still figured out how to watch one of her races. She had read that letter five times over, how he praised her running, how he said he wished he had been there…

Even with all of these Tracen resources, she couldn’t even match his dedication.


The worst part of it all?

Rudolf was right.

Taiki had been slipping for the better part of a month. So Jessie had to suffer twice for her own nonsense. Once for doing what she couldn’t, and again because she might not live up to expectations 

She went back inside. She almost ripped open the door for her room. She sat down and pulled out a pen and paper. She wanted to try to write something, to tell him about what was happening.

“Dear Jessie,

I’m sorry, I can’t watch your race. Prez said I’m not allowed anymore.”

She tore that up and threw it in the garbage. It felt like a half baked excuse. An excuse of a girl who had too much and did too little with it.

She tried again.

“Dear Jessie,

The president banned me from watching NASCAR until May. I know that sounds dumb. Like I’m some girl in summer camp who can’t just say hi. But-”

Another ripped piece of paper that bounced off the rim of the trash can into the bin.

Maybe third time's the charm?

“Dear Jessie,
I wanted to be there when you took the Green flag. To do the same thing you did for me. To scream so loud you’d hear it across the ocean. I’m sorry I-”

She didn’t even rip it up this time, just put her pen against her desk. Nothing felt right. Nothing was… good enough.

She had everything. He said it himself, he worked in a shed in comparison. But where was her drive, her spirit to compete? All of her worst fears about him crashing down into her head. The fears of not being good enough for his friendship, being fake, or maybe having a sense of unearned superiority.

She dropped the pen and heard it clatter against the desk like a spent shell casing.

She pulled out an old shoebox of hers. One she had since middle school.

Inside was everything he ever wrote to her. It was dozens upon dozens of letters. Some were smudged with grease, others were torn off log book pages from his fathers garage. She pulled out the one at the bottom. It was dated back to 1987, back when they were in middle school. 

"Dear Taiki, 

My name is Jessie Jackson. I hope to be a friend. I'm writing this from North Carolina. My dad owns a garage, it's so cool working on the parts. When I grow up, I want to be like Richard Petty and win the Daytona 500. What do you want to do when you grow up? 

From, 

Jessie"

A tear hit the paper, and she put that letter back at the bottom.

She stacked the letters in a pile, and put the diecast of Stonewall on top.

It was a shrine to a promise she had broken.

She wouldn’t write again until she had something worth saying to him.

Not “Sorry”

Not “It wasn’t my fault”

Not “Don’t forget about me"

The only thing that’d be worth anything would be a victory so big that he’d hear about it in the New York Times.

Taiki clicked off the lamp for her desk and got into her bed.

She whispered to the toy car, making the only promise she’d let herself make for three long months.

“Wait for me Jessie, I’m gonna run so fast you feel it back home.”

She had a lot of training to do. Jessie would understand waiting. He could wait a little longer.

Chapter Text

Darlington, South Carolina
Darlington Raceway
March 23rd, 1997
Race Day
TranSouth Financial 400

Third in Daytona, first in Rockingham, fifth in Richmond, and second in Atlanta. He had 700 points going into this race, and he hadn’t heard as much as a peep from Taiki. Not a word of congratulations  Nothing since Janurary…

He shouldn’t let it get to him, she was busy, probably, but it did. Like a pebble in your shoe you can’t just shake out.

He shut her out of his head and went back to turning his wrench. It was the last three hours until the race, he was checking every single bolt, screw, or anything else that could come loose during the race. He had won at Darlington before but he wouldn’t underestimate the course, the place had a well earned reputation for chewing up cars and drivers alive.

The car was up on jack stands as he was underneath Stonewall. The driver's meeting was soon, but he didn’t pay much attention to time right now. Eventually a pair of shoes walked over to Jessie and he didn’t pay any mind at first, eventually he heard an “ahem” and he turned around, the black firesuit told him everything he needed to know.

It was Dale Earnhardt, wearing aviators and a his branded hat as he looked at Jessie. His voice when it came through wasn’t the gravely tone you’d expect from a man with his reputation, how else would you expect a guy named “the Intimidator” to sound like?

“Are you planning on winning the race from under your car? The driver's meeting is going to start in half an hour.”

Jessie quickly scrambled to his feet and dusted himself off as best he could. This was big, the guy hadn’t said much to Jessie ever before, Jessie had watched him on TV racing as a kid back in the 1980s and early 1990s. He was also the winner of the Daytona 500 this year, getting past Jeff Gordon with six laps to go for the final finish.

“Oh sir- I mean Mr. Earnhardt, I was just checking over everything.”

“Kid, you have a team for that. Your job is to drive the thing.”

“I built it myself sir, put about four years of blood, sweat, tears, and money into it. I inspect her myself, give it a little once over.”

Jessie spoke with a bit of awkwardness, he was never good at talking much with the other drivers. What did he have to talk about with them anyway? Everything was just talking about the race, other drivers, or how they were doing at home. Jessie didn’t mean no offense but he’d rather put his time into making Stonewall the best car it could be. He scratched the back of his neck in the presence of the veteran and wore a tight smile. With the retirement of Richard Petty back in the early 90s, Earnhardt was the man who had won the most championships currently active in the sport, a man who had been driving for longer than Jessie had been alive.

“Yeah I heard about that” Dale spoke with the hint of a smile, as if there was some joke that was said just out of earshot at family dinner and he had to hold it in. “But I’m not here to talk about your racing record if that’s what you’re wondering. We all know that, what none of us know is you.”

“What do you mean?” Jessie now raised an eyebrow. He raced hard, what else was there to know?

“I mean, why would an 18 year old decide to qualify for the Cup Series? You were 18 when you won at Darlington, you’re the youngest winner in the history of the sport right now. You’re the points leader at 19. But you’re shy, no way around it. You don’t talk to anyone else here. We don’t know whether to draft with you or spin you out half the time. There’s no way someone like you is running like this without some kind of story.”

Jessie looked down and away. His fingers drummed against the wrench he had. He did have a story, but it wasn’t much to say. He raced late models back in North Carolina, worked hard, and got the parts for Stonewall and built it over a few years.

“Well I raced a little back in the day, but I was born and raised with my father owning a mechanic shop back in my hometown. Working on cars since I was a kid, gave me a good eye for this sort of thing. I always wanted to race, Dad said I watched the Daytona 500 back when I was six and I was hooked.”

Dale nodded slowly, then spoke up.

“You don’t gotta be scared kid. I can see it in your eyes. Something’s eating at you.”

He sounded almost paternal in his tone which made Jessie want to talk a little more.

“I don’t know, I just don’t feel right. Like I’m in some dream and waiting for my alarm clock to go off.”

“Well, get your head straight, whatever’s going on. Fix it, if you got something on your mind other than the race you might slip up. If I’m going to beat you, I’m not doing it cause you got something on your mind.”

Jessie nodded, he watched Earnhardt, seemingly satisfied with whatever insight he had on the “Son of the South”, walk off to the rest of the garage. Jessie looked over to the toolbox. Laid on top of it was a letterman. It was originally a blank one Taiki had bought and sent to him back in January. It had a “26” in his racing colors over where a school logo would be on the right breast. On his sleeves each held one flag, an American and a Southern flag. Jessie felt a little odd, but ever since the Southern 500, the media had seemed hellbent to cast him as some sort of Southern answer to Gordon. He couldn’t blame Taiki for putting a little bit of that into the jacket. His sponsors covered the rest of the sleeves, with the notable absence of the Tracen Academy logo. That meant she didn’t know about his sponsorship yet, at least not back in January. To be fair, he doubted that she was important enough for the director to tell her that Jessie was being sponsored by the academy. 

It wouldn’t be so bad, he just had to wear their colors for the academy. Well that's what the contract mostly was about, he kinda glossed over after a little while, staying up all night before watching Taiki win it big made him not pay too much attention but sign the contract anyway. 100 grand was 100 grand.

He went to get changed into his fire suit, leaving the letterman at his toolbox. He sat down for the drivers meeting. Most of the drivers were talking to each other. One of them had a pompadour haircut, slicked back, and was talking to the press. That was Cole Ramsey, nicknamed Cobra for his snake themed Casino sponsor back in Vegas. The guy was everything Jessie wasn’t, he loved the spotlight, completely full of himself, and was never seen giving his car anything but a cursory glance. He had won in Atlanta and was known as one of the dirtiest drivers in the sport. He was on Joe Gibbs Racing, so he head team support unlike Jessie.

Jessie got ready for the meeting to start when he saw a reporter walk over. At first he thought it was for one of the other drivers but when he actually looked her over it dawned on him it was Etsuko Otonashi again. Suzuka was one thing, but coming to America must have been a pretty penny. She wasn’t alone this time, she had a camera guy with her. He saw a notepad like before and a tape recorder. It was much more serious than Suzuka.

Seeing her in, Otonashi got closer.

“Hello Jessie Jackson, I’m Etsuko Otonashi of the Twinkle Monthly again. We were here to ask you a few questions for your fans in Japan.”

That made Jessie look at her with a bit of genuine surprise in his face.

“I have Japanese fans? Not a bad thing, just a little surprised.”

“You won NASCAR’s first contest in Japan. Your drive to do whatever it takes to win with pitiful resources has struck a chord with many in Japan. You lead the points at the young age of 19. If you keep these finishing numbers, you’re likely to win the Winston Cup in your rookie season. How do you feel about how fast you’ve risen up the world of Stock Car racing?”

Jessie blinked for a moment, how could he tell her about that? That every day he pinched himself waiting to wake up and be back in high school? Every single of these drivers had all risen up in the minor leagues, Truck, and then the Busch series into the world of the Winston Cup. Jessie had made his own car, and got a team of his friends and family to help him out in Darlington. 

How long until the rug would be pulled out from under him?

“It feels… surprising but I got a chance and I’m gonna hold on until I can’t no more.”

“I see… Now there’s the matter of your sponsorship by Tracen Academy. How does it feel crossing into the world of the URA and wearing their colors for your next at Suzuka?”

“If the Director thinks I’m a good flagbearer for Tracen, then I’ll perform to the best of my ability.”

“Your humility just comes across in your language. Like Toyotomi Hideyoshi, you have started low but you have been raised high.”

“Toyotomi who now?”

“Don’t worry it’s something for the Japanese audience. One last question, when Taiki Shuttle won in the Shinzan Kinen in a strong finish. She had a television interview. She said she wanted one man to ‘not to change that channel’ in English. Who do you think she meant?”

Now that question made Jessie look away. It made him shiver a little. She had all but called him out on national television for the entire nation to see. That moment was still burned in his head. Like that picture from Christmas, or her tape from her Debut race, or her picture with her racing outfit. God, he couldn’t get the girl out of his head. Even when she hadn’t been writing to him for a while. It must have been easier for her. He was not going to tell Otonashi how pathetic he was for a girl he had only actually met two times. He could see the camera and the red light focusing right on his face. 

He was happy that they were asking on race day and not before. They wouldn’t see the meticulous nature he went into designing a birthday gift for her. Finally, with enough silence having passed that he was sure an 18 wheeler could have made a clean shot through, he spoke.

“I dunno… probably her family or her trainer. She’s got a lot of folks back home who might have stayed up for that event.”

He looked to Etsuko, who gave a smile as if she knew exactly that he had given her a completely non-answer. He did know exactly who she had been referencing, but he couldn’t just say it.

Seemingly satisfied with her results Etsuko walked away and the drivers meeting started. Once it was over, he saw Cole Ramsey look over to him. A shit eating grin on his face.

“Hey Hillbilly, that little Japanese filly finally figured out she traded up?” He leaned in almost gently for a moment. “You know some of us actually get fan mail, not write it.” He then laughed loudly at his own joke, half the drivers quietly chuckled. They thought this was just usual trash talk. They didn’t know how much this pulled at Jessie.

Jessie turned cross. He didn’t like this guy already. Ramsey had been running around the cup series and had won at Atlanta but it didn’t give Cole the right to mouth off on him for no reason.

“Hey man what’s your problem?”

“Let’s see…” He said as he raised up his fingers with each point for emphasis.

“Getting the car to win primarily. But also my life, my home, this league, Western civilization. Come on though, enough about me.”

He spoke as if he wouldn’t give an entire spiel about how awesome he was at the drop of a hat.

“I’d like you a lot more if you dropped your humble mechanic act. ‘Oh, I built my own car back in high school’, get over yourself.”

“Ramsey, the only thing you ever passed clean was a slow moving school bus. Shut your mouth before I shut it for you.” Dale Earnhardt said quietly with a hint of genuine anger.

“Oh it’s the old veteran here to give his wonderful wisdom.”

As Cole switched targets, it gave Jessie the opportunity to leave without much more trouble. The less he spent around that guy the better as far as Jessie was concerned. He also had to stop himself from double taking in public, wasn’t every day you got defended by Dale Earnhardt.

He made the final adjustments and rolled Stonewall out to pit road before topping off her fuel tank. He looked out at the stands. Nearly 35,000 people were out there cheering for the various drivers here. Jessie had qualified in twelfth yesterday and would start within striking distance of the top. It was 4 positions better than he did when he won the Southern 500. He put on his helmet and got into the car, the net was put up and he put his hands on the steering wheel.

He made the same pre race checks, steering wheel, gears shifting right, power for the communications, all the gauges were reading normal. He took a breath and spoke to Heather “You in position?”.

“Yeah Cowboy. You're feeling alright?”

“As fine as I have ever been, why do you ask?” He said with an unmistakable amount of bitterness.

“Look, don't let it get to you, you’ll get something soon. Just be patient.”

“Don’t talk about her. Don’t need to hear it. Just tell me positions, lines, and cautions.”

The PA system came on then.

“Hello folks, we got an amazing event. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarret, Cole Ramsey. Last but certainly not least, the points leader, the Son of the South! Jessie Jackson!”

The command was given to fire engines, and the cars got into line. Once the pace car left the race began. Most of it was a blur to Jessie, when you hit the zone a lot of the details went away. 5 Laps passed when a caution was called for a spin out.

After 6 laps under caution, the green flag came down again. Green just like- no, he wasn’t going to get distracted. She wasn’t caring about him, he wasn’t going to care right now. Darlington wasn’t like most other tracks, the higher grooves were generally better but a lot more dangerous. Jessie moved up three positions over the next 5 laps. However another caution was called due to debris.

He clenched the wheel as the Pace Car came out again, another 4 laps under caution. Another Green flag drop. It was like the NASCAR version of stop and go traffic. The first 60 laps were just like this, about 5-6 laps under green and another 5 or so under caution. Jessie got more and more frustrated with the constant cautions. He was in 8th now but it felt like the moment a run would start he would get told he had to slow back down to pace car speed. He was behind Cole Ramsey in 6th going into the start again.

“Come on, come on, let’s get a move on already!” Jessie yelled as the pace car went back into the pits. The Green flag went down again and he slammed his foot onto the accelerator. He watched the rear of the Black #66 getting closer and closer. Jessie then ducked low to get past Ramsey. It was amazing, he was finally under Green for longer for 5 laps. It allowed him to get into the top 5. The other drivers up ahead were Jarret, Burton, Stricklin, or Irvan. Jessie over the course of the next 60 laps was able to get past each of them one by one.

Low for Jarret in the rear end

High for Burton in turn 4

Stricklin overshot his block in turn 2 and went into the wall, but recovered before a caution.

Every position was a victory, like ripping it from their arms and running away with it. Jessie wouldn’t ask for quarter and he didn’t expect it.

Irvan was the trickiest but he had made a bad exit of turn 4 which gave Jessie his in by lap 104.

He had 219 laps left to go but this was good progress. As long as he led one lap it was 5 bonus points, if he could lead for the majority of the race. It would mean another 5 after that. The race felt a little fun again.

However the racing gods just seemed to mess with him today, Cole Ramsey had spun out someone on the back stretch and the field was stacked back up. He was put back into another 6 laps of caution, 8 laps of green, and then another 6 laps of caution. It wasn’t hard to stay ahead when you had to do it for 8 laps and then putter around at 45 miles per hour. He was spending a good amount of the race going slower than folks driving home would go. He took a trip to the pits during his stop and fueled back up along with changing his tires, he went back to the middle of the pack as the green flag came down again.

23 laps was all Jessie needed to get back to the top again. He didn’t let opportunities present themselves like at Suzuka, he forced them open like it was a rotten door that only needed a strong kick.

Then he had to be hit with another 11 laps of caution.

He turned now to the dashboard and took a breath. He then saw her, or well the picture of her in her race wear and blowing the finger gun.

“Sorry, just miss ya”

He knew it was just a picture, but writing letters to the girl seemed about as useful as talking to a picture. He wondered what was going on, but he couldn’t get jack from her to confirm or deny anything.

He let out that breath and turned back forward. She wasn’t writing to him, that was the reality, he just had to accept that and hoped she would push forward.

The Green flag then dropped and he dropped the hammer right with it.

Stonewall shot forward and left the other guy in the dust.

He took the high line, and was far enough ahead that he could go up and down as the groove demanded of him. He occasionally checked the rearview mirror, but he was a few lengths ahead of any cars now.

54 laps of racing, he could see his lead getting wider and wider, now he was a full straightaway ahead of the other racers, according to heather, the 2nd was Cole Ramsey, but Jessie didn’t pay any mind. The race felt exhilarating now, with no one ahead of him.

Then NASCAR in its infinite wisdom had to call a caution now. There was oil on the track apparently.

Jessie went into the pits again for gas and was moved back to 7th for his trouble. He didn’t feel angry anymore, just empty. He worked his way back up to the front for 20 laps and got a similarly long lead again. The race didn’t have any more cautions, just 60 laps of pure green flag.

Jessie took the checkered flag with Cole Ramsey 10 seconds behind him. Jessie took a cool down lap before parking in the infield. He took off the netting, got out of the car and stood on the roof. He made a salute to the crowd before taking the car into victory lane.

He got the trophy, and still couldn’t drink any of the champagne they poured on his fire suit. He smiled, this was a nice feeling. He had to take every victory like it was his last after all. No one knew when it might be that fateful day.

He wished Taiki could be here to see it all. He smiled for the cameras, waved the trophy, signed autographs until his hand cramped.

After a few hours most people had cleared out.

Jessie sat on the pit wall wearing Taiki’s jacket.

He let himself breathe in, and let it out.

The cheers had faded.

The stands were empty.

The engines were silent.

There was nothing but the dim movements of teams taking equipment to their haulers and the chirps and other noises from the wildlife in the nearby swamp. 

He then reached into his letterman and opened the letter again, the last one she had sent him before she went silent. He had burned the words into his head, but it was a ritual now. The letter was dated for Janurary 5th, she must have written this right after she went back to her dorm and took a shower.

"Dear Jessie,

Shinzan Kinen was amazing. Thanks for everything you've ever done for me Jessie. Be it a sprint or a mile, you can count on me! I get the feeling I'll be winning a lot more from here on out! I'm gonna keep racing and racing till I become the Umamusume of the year! I'm going to be throwing a victory bash with Team Rigil after I'm done writing this letter. I just wanted to tell you how much you helped me along my way. Back when I was in the states and finishing up High school, you told me that I should follow my dreams, no matter how far it takes me. I took those words to heart. I'm happy to tell you that you were right! I can't wait to watch you do the same in NASCAR. I'll probably get chewed out by Amazon again, but I've been chewed out before. Nothing's gonna stop me from watching my pretty racer boy from winning it big in Daytona, Talladega, and Indianapolis! I hope your back will be ready for when I give you a big hug when you come to Suzuka again in the fall. I might have already bought the ticket for myself, and I will be using those VIP privileges. Just pay me a smidgen of attention while you go off and become a winner. 

Always yours, 
Taiki Shuttle"


He put the letter back in the Letterman jacket, and looked up to the stars. 

"Now what?"

Chapter Text

Fuchu, Tokyo Prefecture
Library, Tracen Academy
Late April, Classic Year
Less than a month until the NHK Mile Cup

Taiki sat at the computer lab in the library of Tracen academy, she had a new addition to her outfit. Jessie’s birthday gift had arrived on the 23rd and she had opened it to find a letter and a package. Inside the package was a necklace that Jessie had made for her. The pendant was of a star, made from aluminum. The center of it had a green emerald gutted right in the middle. The wire had been made from stainless steel safety wire, which made it one of the most sturdy pieces of jewelry she had ever been given. It wasn’t the most pretty thing she had ever seen. She could still see some file marks on the edges or grinder swirl patterns he couldn’t get polished out. The best part was on the back, written on it and marked into the metal was “my shooting star”. 

She wasn’t taking this off. Not ever. She showered with it. Slept with it. Every outfit now had to be adjusted to include it.

She should be doing homework right now, but she moved her cursor to the browser and entered into Nascar.com and began to check the results tab again. Her weekly ritual since February

3rd in Daytona, 1st in Rockingham, 5th in Richmond, 2nd in Atlanta, 1st in Darlington, 4th in Bristol, 1st in Texas, 3rd in Martinsville. About 1405 points in total. An average finish of 2.5.

She got out of her chair and threw up her arms “Let’s go!”

 Before hearing a loud “shhhhh!” from the librarian.

She froze, face going red, and sank quickly back into her seat. Nobody needed to know about this.

Rudolf had banned her from watching any broadcasts, and she was sticking to the letter of that rule. The spirit of that rule? Hell no. She wasn’t going cold turkey on Jessie, no way. Especially now that she knew Tracen was sponsoring him.

It had leaked through Twinkle Monthly, though nothing official had been released yet. The article hinted at a summer announcement.

Taiki could feel her smile getting wider and wider at the idea. If he came back to Japan again, if she saw him again. 

She could hug him, she could feed him, she could finally say everything she’d been holding back after a while. Well actually scratch that third item, she was going to write out a bunch of letters. Set aside a whole day for it, a reply to every single letter he made, and watching every single one of the races that Hishimiya Amazon recorded and put on a bunch of tapes on Taiki’s behalf. The hug however would be non negotiable. She didn’t care if it broke his back, she was getting her hug!

She was shook out of her musings as a girl with a red bow and hair that reminded Taiki of the color of cotton candy and bubblegum came into view. Taiki quickly held up her hands.

“I’m sorry for bein’ loud! Cowgirls honor it won’t happen again!”

She expected to get told off for being loud in the library, she didn’t expect for this girl to close her eyes, hold up her hands, and blush like a storm.

“I’m so sorry, a pure goddess like you cannot be held at any fault for your voice!”

The girl looked to Taiki like some thief caught in the act. What the hell was going on here?

“Wait so you’re not mad…?”

“Why would I be, a pure Uma Otaku like myself could never be mad at such a stunning Umamusume like yourself! Your fire, your determination, and your desire to make those around you happy is stunning.”

This girl was… weird, no other way to say it. Tracen had plenty of eccentric personalities, Taiki was used to that, but declaring yourself an Otaku and going on and on about how nice she was a little beyond the pale.

“Uhhh, alright well I’m going to just go back to looking at NASCAR results.”

“Oh so the theories were right!”

That made Taiki turn to the girl and grab her shoulders, nearly shaking her. She was sick and tired at this point of the other girls at Tracen constantly making jokes about her and Jessie. No one’s allowed to have a penpal anymore. Noooooo, it couldn’t ever be that easy. He just had to be a boy, so every girl had to call her “Mrs. Jackson” to get under her skin, or read your mail dramatically out for a party to hear. Yes, Jessie was a nice guy, but he would always choose someone that got him. He said it himself back in November, god that dinner at the diner had been burned into Taiki’s brain. She hated that Jessie had to call it a date, completely threw it off her tempo. She took all of this out now on the weirdo girl that was in front of her.

“What theories?! I swear if I hear one more thing about Je-”

“I READ IT ON UMACHAN!”

“What on God’s green earth is Umachan?”

“It’s a forum, I- I can show you if you want!”

She put the girl down, a forum huh? Probably had to do with Umamusume, why would Jessie ever come up there? Curiosity got at her, and she decided it wouldn’t kill her to know.

“Sure, I guess, I don’t got much going on tonight.”

The Otaku walked over to the computer and began clacking away at the keys. A bunch of images flashed through until eventually she ended up on a screen. It was pink with several Uma shoes in the background. A couple of options existed to choose from.

/twinkle/
/spica/
/rigil/
/canopus/
/classic/
/foreign/

As Digital then clicked /foreign/ Taiki asked a question. It would break the pause in the air in Taiki’s mind. She didn’t want to have dead air.

“Who are you anyway?”

“I- I’m Agnes Digital.”

“Right, I’ll remember the name”

A strange, high-pitched squeak escaped Digital. Taiki raised an eyebrow and looked at the back of the girl's head in disgust. She then saw the page load and it was mostly a catalog of posts talking about foreign Umamusume racing. She could see some were dedicated to specific schools in the US Triple Crown Academy Network, the European racing scene, and then one strange oddity. The only one that didn’t have an Uma front and center. She could see a really low resolution picture of Jessie right there. He was wearing the jacket she made for him.

In a moment she didn’t care that she was dealing with some freaky Otaku girl, that image of him wearing that jacket took everything in her not to scream. He actually wore it, he liked it, and he was clearly wearing it during a race day. The entire world stood quiet as she stared at him, her eyes raking over every part of it like some piece of the best steak she ever tasted. Her arms felt empty and the only thing that would fill them properly was-. No she couldn’t do that now, she could go back to her dorm room and hug a pillow. It’s what she usually did when she got the “empty arms” feeling as she described it. Still the fact that he was actually wearing it took the breath out of Taiki. That hd been a week or so of work to put that together.

The title of the post was “/jjg/ Jessie Jackson general #29- POINTS LEADER EDITION” which had “R: 134” and “I: 56”. Taiki turned to Digital and asked with a deadly serious tone, holding up her hands for emphasis.

“So, this is named Umachan right?”

“Yes”

“So it has to do with Umamusume.”

“Yeah that’s one of the main rules of the site.”

“So tell me, why Jessie Jackson, a NASCAR driver has a thread? Shouldn’t this be banned?”

“You would think! But he has a lot more connections to Umamusume than most would think. You’d know all about that wouldn’t you~”

Taiki blushed, she wanted to take the Twinkle Monthly and burn that rag sometimes. They just kept making insinuations that Jessie and herself had some kind of connection. Okay, that wasn’t wrong, but she didn’t want people knowing that! 

“What’s that supposed ta mean?” Taiki could feel the burn on her face.

Digital scrolled after opening the post, scrolling showed a lot. Racing footage, more pictures of him, some of the comments were purely focused on his racing experience.

“another win at Darlington. The kid is literally unstoppable. average finish 2.5 through nine races. He's going to win the championship in a homemade car and there’s nothing the factory teams can do about it. Imagine being Hendrick or Childress right now.”

“It’s a bubble you idiot, he’s going to crash and burn in a month or two. Stop forcing this NASCAR loser on Umachan. We’re here for Umamusume, not human content.”

Others were something else entirely. It was a lot of fanart, speculation about his sponsorship with Tracen, and someone then uploaded something called “evidencev3.jpg”

Circled in red was Jessie wearing the jacket and Taiki with the necklace. Okay, someone who was on this thread was a student, cause there was no other way they could have gotten a picture like that. It also showed pictures of Jessie and her back at Tracen, and Jessie saluting up to the VIP box in Suzuka.

The caption read

“The narrative has gone 5 feet deeper. They will date by the end of the year. Calling it”

Taiki groaned, she hated celebrity gossip culture.

“So, is that it or?”

“Well this has been a common thing going on since the first Twinkle Monthly article dropped”


Digital moused over one of the replies before moving away for a moment but Taiki could read it.

“I bought her merch. Funded her dates with HIM. Funded love hotels and hot springs for HIM. Funded her engagement with HIM. Funded her marriage with HIM.”

Taiki frowned and turned to Digital.

“Do these people think that if they buy my merchandise that I’m gonna date them or somethin? I don’t know these people!”

She saw another reply.

“You did this to yourself, you idiot. God you people are worse than the Oguri fans in /cl/.”

That made her double take. She turned to Digital.

“What kinda site is this?!”

“The intense passions of fans. Some believe that the purity of the Umamusume should never be tainted, others believe that they are the only ones that should touch the Umamusume. Some believe that the-”

The girl’s ramblings about the culture of the site went in one of Taiki’s ears and out the other. Taiki began scrolling and put her hand over Digital's to do it. She then saw something that rocked her world. A disgustingly good art piece of her smooching Jessie with Stonewall in the background. Taiki’s brain turned to dust. She stared for what must have been half a minute before Digital waved her hand in front of Taiki, breaking the entrancement the drawing had on Taiki.

She threw her hands over her face and could feel the burn all over her face.

“W-Why would you show me that?!”

Digital blinked and raised an eyebrow “You… stared at that for a minute.”

“I WAS PROCESSIN’ IT!”

She turned the computer off and walked away from the library, she could feel her chest going crazy, like her heart was working a mile a minute. She spent the next three hours in the most intense training she had all week. It wasn’t planned, it was supposed to be a rest day, but she needed to stop her heart from racing, her brain from conjuring that image, and that ghost of a hug in her arms.

After that time she was eating a hearty dinner with the other girls. Meisho Doto was having some Natto and rice while Taiki continued to go on and on.

“I mean that artist was just so- so wrong. It ain’t like that! We’re just friends, always have been, always will be. He’s a really good guy, a great guy, the best pal I coulda asked for. He ain’t my guy though, never mine, why would he be mine? He’s got racing an’ I got racin’-”

Meisho Doto raised an eyebrow at Taiki.

“Taiki…”

Taiki continued on her rant, uninterrupted.


“- and it’s just plain rude to draw people like that without askin’-”

“Taiki.”

Doto repeated with a fraction of what seemed like forcefulness in the tone of her voice. That shut Taiki up, the idea of Meisho Doto having anything like that outside of racing was inconceivable.

Doto set down her chopsticks with deliberate care, as if expecting a bomb to go off nearby.

“Why does it bother you so much?”

Taiki opened her mouth, closed it, and tilted her head a little. Meisho

“Didn’t ya hear anything I said? People shouldn’t just make stuff up! It’s weird!”

“B-but… you’ve been wearing that necklace he made you ever day… right?”

Doto’s ears went flat against her head, looking away, almost like she was scared of what she was saying.

“You check his race totals every week… even though the president told your directly to not watch the races…”

“That ain’t a rule violation. Technically I’m not watching the races!”

“If I got a necklace from Opera O and wore it all the time… people would think I liked her… I mean, you ran for three hours even though you weren’t supposed to just because you saw a drawing of you and him kissing.”

“That’s different!”

“Why?”

Doto looked at Taiki with such adorable eyes. It made it hard to resist answering. The words came out of Taiki’s mouth before she could get a hold on herself.

“Cause Opera O is a friend not a–”

Taiki then slapped a hand over her mouth. The realization of what she had just almost said hit her like a truck going at 40 miles per hour.

Her mouth went dry, her hands trembled, it felt like her heart didn’t know how to beat right. Her ears shot straight up, her tail went straight and up. Her chest had a warm and fuzzy feeling now.

She remembered now, she remembered back when she was a couple of years younger. When she called Jessie in tears after winning the state championships while he was coming off a late model race, he answered, talking to her for hours about choosing tracen or going to the TCAN.

“I dunno Jessie, this whole thing is scary. I know Tracen’s a good school. But being in Japan? I’ll be so lonely.”

“Come on Taiki, you said it yourself, you’ll do good there. I believe in you, you’re the best girl I’ve known for this sort of thing. I’ll try my best to write you. You’ll never be lonely if I got anything to say about it.”

She remembered seeing him for the first time at Suzuka, how his blue eyes looked at her with such wonder in them it hurt. He almost dropped his wrench. He had been struck with awe by her.

She remembered his stupid date comment and now she knew why she blushed, why it had thrown her off. Now she knew why she wished more than anything that Jessie had told her about Katie earlier. Why she had paid such close attention to what kind of girl Jessie wanted in his life.

She had been in love with him. Probably been in love for years. Now she knew why none of the guys at her school felt right to her. It felt like some kind of violation. Before she thought it was because she didn’t feel seen, but maybe she had been saving herself.

She lowered her hand from her mouth. She stared down at her half eaten steak and let out a single phrase in clear English.

“Aw darn it!”

She felt like an idiot. She loved the guy and what did she decide to do? Stop talking for three months and hope he’d still like her while he was having the toughest moments of his life?! He had promised to be there for her and despite everything he had done that. She was going to do the same for him even if it killed her.

She stood up from the table. Meisho Doto looked scared, but was left in the dust as Taiki bolted off like the starting gate had just opened. She didn’t stop until she was back in her dorm room, breathing heavily. She first off hugged the pillow, but then pulled out her pen and paper and began writing out all of her feelings.

“Dear Jessie,

I love you.

There, I said it.

I’m in love with the boy who wrote me notes back when he was 13 on stationary paper because he was too busy with work for anything else.

I’m in love with the idiot who stayed up past midnight back when I was starting my run in the state leagues and told me how to read the track racing lines on a dirt track because you learned that from being in your own tracks.

I’m in love with the guy who told me to follow my dreams no matter how scary they were. To run into the wild frontier because I was so powerful I could break the world to my will if I tried hard enough.

I’m in love with the man who built his own car over years and ran into the world of NASCAR.

I love you Jessie. For so long that I can’t honestly remember a time where I wasn’t in love with you. Not when I can be certain of my own feelings.

I stopped writing to you because I felt ashamed, not because I hate you or that I was busy. I have every fancy thing handed to me here on a silver platter and I still couldn’t stay up one night to watch you race in the biggest race of your life. You did in the dead of night in winter when you barely had anything. I thought that if I waited until I was worthy of you then it wouldn’t hurt me, but I was a fool.

The ache didn’t stop. I just left you hanging for two months with nary an explanation.

I’m sorry, I’ll probably be sorry for the rest of my gosh darn life. You deserved better than silence from the girl who’s supposed to be your best friend. 

I can’t mail this yet. Not cause I’m scared, but I don’t know what I’ll do if you say no. You deserve to hear all of this from my mouth. Not some piece of paper when you’re running the most intense season of your life. You deserve to get the best hug I can muster when I tell you. Maybe I need that too.

So I’m going to run that next race like my life depends on it. I’ll wait like a good girl for you to come over for Suzuka and I’ll tell you then. I just need to find the right moment. I can’t spend another year or more just waiting to tell you. I’d never forgive myself for letting my heart ache for another year because I’m a dang coward. 

Just don’t give up on me please?
I’ll make it up to you. I promise. I mean it.

Keep that jacket handy.

I’ll keep being your shooting star, it makes me the happiest girl in the world.

Always, always, always yours,
Taiki Shuttle”

She had to get up, the feelings were so intense that she couldn’t sit down. The pounding in her chest felt like it would kill her. She put her forehead against the window and breathed. Letting the tension leave her body. She wondered for a moment about sending the letter. She decided against it, this wasn’t something she wanted to tell him while he was thousands of miles away. She would write to him again, but he had been going for months without hearing from her. What he needed was someone in his corner, even if that wasn’t what she wanted. She would wait and be patient, she knew for sure he was heading to Suzuka and she would tell him what she felt about him come hell or high water. 

She put the letter in an envelope, sealed it, and put it away inside her desk. She looked at the pendant, held it in her hands, and kissed it.

Ugh, she hated this. Why couldn’t he just be here?! It’d be so much easier.

She kicked off her shoes, went into her bed, and held one of her pillows in her arms. Her thoughts drifted to rolling fields of flowers and sitting in them with a nice boy from North Carolina.