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—START—
February 27th.
A day like any other, a morning not special in any way beyond the birth of a child. A child who from their very first breath was special in a way unlike all others.
Ever since the beginning of recorded history, one rule has existed amongst the medical practitioners, one law that remains immutable until this fateful day on a hospital in Hokkaido.
If a man and an Umamusume have a child and that child is a girl, then they will — in what was thought to be guaranteed — have an Umamusume for a daughter.
No human girl had ever been born from an Uma, that was the biological precedent the world had set.
That was until February 27th of course, when the birth of a little girl of brown eyes stunned the community for a girl without ears and a tail from Akitsu Teio became the first ever case of a human girl being born from an Umamusume.
It was unprecedented as it was impossible, no other cases were ever recorded like that in either past of future, thus the girl was named $·%@&$·was born, with a name meaning miracle for that’s what she was.
Despite the impossibility of the event the girl’s birth life was not too strange nor problematic in the first five years of her life, just a normal girl growing up with parents who loved her and gave it everything to love her and provide for her.
It would only be years later that the girl would understand what the world had stolen from her even since her birth.
$·%@&$ Grew up well, the anomaly of her birth eventually becoming more of a curiosity in her life more than anything. Her mother would tell her stories of her racing career. Her struggles and successes as racer and all the effort it took to win G1 races.
Those stories were the ones $·%@&$ considered to be the best, like something within her called her from the scenery of a racetrack, the cheers of the people around her, the sweat and strength needed to achieve victory and the victory live.
It fascinated her in ways she couldn’t describe at the time, being 5 all she could say was that they were the coolest thing ever.
Calling for her would have been an appropriate way to say it.
Her father, a musician who participated in the entrance ceremony on the racetracks too had his own tales to give, but those never resonated the same way the races themselves did for $·%@&$.
Like they missed something, an element that was not what made her heart turn the way her mother’s stories did.
Still, things remained without issue as they kept their small cozy lives moving forward at least until the day things would come to a halt. One day Akitsu Teio’s only decision was to bring her daughter to a park with a public practicing racetrack nearby.
An innocent action, a thing any mother could do any day.
-THUD THUD THUD-
Incredibly fast and sturdy steps would sometimes pass near the playground, someone ran dedicatedly through the field, focused and potent with a strength not found in most individuals.
A racer, one good enough to participate in the central circuit and win a GII race had chosen for whatever reason to train in this field today. In the act of doing so giving a spectacle for so many different kids.
One such little spectator had their live turned around by that figure.
$·%@&$ didn’t play in the swings like usual that day, didn’t slide down on the park or maybe even with a ball with the other kids, no. Something else had managed to capture the attention of a child who normally was
Her eyes — her brown eyes — were focused on the black streak cutting through the track, the blur of movement that was fascinating.
The way sweat poured from their body, the way her hair and tail fluttered with the wind, how her legs made an incredible sound each time they hit the ground.
The speed at which she moved.
The power of each stride and burst.
And most important of all, what she felt was the grandest showing of that girl, the absolute pure joy on that girl’s face as she ran. Appearing as if running fast was the absolute best thing in the world.
It awakened something inside the girl — a need, a want, a goal — whatever one wanted to call it didn’t matter, just that something started to burn, a fire lit in her heart.
“I want to do that” a singular sentence spoken under her breath, something for only herself.
Yet it would seal $%&$ ‘s motivation and ambition for the rest of her life, engraving that image and smiling on her heart.
For the next two hours all she did was stay there, watching how that girl ran, how her legs strained under the pressure of each step and how she corrected herself each time she made a mistake.
Determined, perseverant, and so incredibly happy to run.
It is normally said that Umamusume are born to run, that they have an instinctual need for that feeling of speed. Yet it was not an Uma feeling that right now, but a human.
She wanted to feel that emotion, to run the track no matter what.
And to transmit those emotions back to others.
Akitsu Teio eventually took her home, unaware of the revelation stirring her daughter’s soul, her father made her a tasty dinner and eventually she was put to bed and the lights went off.
Yet, now laid in bed the little girl could only think on that running, thinking about the nameless Uma that had set her on the path she wanted to pursue.
From that day watching every major race or races with an Uma $%&$ had grown attached to. This was the usual on the household, running shoes became her usual kind of footwear, going out to the park to run was routine.
Her parents didn’t find anything weird with this on first instances, she was a growing child with boundless energy that had latched onto a popular sport and was a fan, there was nothing strange about that.
It was as years progressed that things would turn slightly more preoccupant for them.
The growth of this desire took years to even manifest and a decision to give her a bit of an allowance fueled it even further.
Everything started with internet searches, looking up things like ‘Umamusume things everyone should know’ or ‘what is an Umamusume’ from videos that explained how they differed from humans.
Then she moved into a more regular form of training, going out every day to run for as long as she could on some of the public tracks in Kochi.
When teacher asked what the children wanted to be at school $%&$ would always answer an Umamusume racer, the girl began to use her allowance to buy wigs of many different colors all with Umamusume ears in them as well as attachable tails which she would sometimes forget to take off when going out or in the house.
She took Akitsu’s shoes sometimes and attempted to walk in them even though it was not regular or even good for human feet to walk on their tips as Umas did. She attempted to run in them later, sometimes falling in the process and returning home with bruises and dirt all over her face.
It was a constant escalation that while innocent on the outside seemed to carry a compulsive need, $%&$ use the wigs and tails on a day to day basis increasingly and there were times her parents had to ask her to take them off. Whatever new shoes she got for herself would always had some platform that she then tore on her room to make them more like Uma’s shoes, even buying horseshoes in secret to put on some of them.
At some point her parents decided to draw a line, this behavior while cute at some point had become something they considered unhealthy, when $%&$ grades began to fall due to being more focused on running than studying and her allowance was all dumped into this ‘transformation’ she was chasing.
So, one day they properly questioned her, asked what exactly she was intending to do with all of that, what she chased with that much perseverance.
It was innocent, maybe their little girl wanted to do cosplay or things of that nature. A common thing amongst Umamusume fans. The answer was not within their expectations
“I want to be an Umamusume racer” $%&$ declared, serious as a 12-year-old could be yet with a conviction behind her eyes that nearly broke her parents in a strange way.
All because, in any other circumstance $%&$ would have been one, their daughter should have been born an Umamusume and yet some anomaly in the world had just…denied her that.
With her declaring this proudly just brough an old anecdote that was harmless and turned into something that made them feel like they failed. Making something completely out of their control a guilt growing inside.
The body of a human yet the soul of an Umamusume, in a way both of them could see that, the desire to run deep in their daughter’s mind and body that they had simply let fester without taking any action to change or help.
“Dear…you can’t become an Uma” As softly and tactfully as she could Akitsu Teio attempted to explain. “It’s not a job or hobby, but a specie…you can’t just become it but are born like that”
They were tough words for the girl that her mother needed to say, a comforting hand on her shoulder coming from her father trying to keep her grounded with words. “Listen $%&$ I know it might hurt to hear this because of how much you love racing, but that is not something that can be achieved”
For a child who truly never grasped the inconceivable wall that stood between both species those words were killer. Parents who’d always supported her with everything she did, now turning their back on her.
“B-but I can!” She tried to give her point of view, her rationale for how she’d achieve this. “I-I’ve learnt how to run with the shoes…I-I can put a fake tail and a wig like always and-and I can train, get r-real fast”
“A-and as long as I work hard, I do my best” She stumbles with her own words seeing that what she was saying did not seem to be reaching her parents at all, they weren’t even considering it. “I can achieve it, if I work harder than anyone I can!”
A desperate plea that should not be coming out of a twelve-year-old mouth.
Akitsu had to shut down that idea immediately. “Honey…this is not a gap hard work can close” Because this was not a matter of talent or effort, it was the differences between species.
The same way a lion does not fly, the same way fish need water to live. Traits that were not achievable because they were something they were born with.
“I know this means a lot to you honey but” The words weighed heavy on $%&$ shoulders. “You need to give up on this idea of becoming an Umamusume”
Give up.
Give up.
Even as they continued to talk, even as she nodded aimlessly to her words it was that simple statement what stuck to her the longest.
Give up, such things contrast so horribly to everything she wanted to be, denied the effort that blurry figure from years ago had instilled in her mind that ran without ever stopping.
As the days progressed $%&$ retrieved herself into a shell, she seemed normal on the outside, people she interacted with daily didn’t spot much of a difference in her. Yet her parents knew, they could tell their little girl had been crushed by their words.
But they knew that it was better they did it than the world did so later.
What nobody could see, the thing that only $%&$ was aware of was that she had not given up at all. Determination mixed with the crushing blow of the rejection into a rebellion that took over her completely.
On the surface she had stopped but under wraps she kept trying.
Saying that she would still go out to run to at least do something wasn’t that hard to convince her parents of letting her, it’s a healthy normal habit for humans after all.
The wigs weren’t really thrown out but she stopped using them, instead selling them around whenever she could to regain some of the money spent on them.
Slowly Umamusume racing seemed to be slipping out of $%&$’s life thanks to her parents. But hair dye bought with that money, a pair of shoes suspiciously shaped hidden under her bed, a cosplay tail and ears that moved due to some weird tech she could afford thanks to selling stuff and more allowances.
By the time $%&$ was fourteen, her most insane plan had come into fruition.
An application for Tracen Academy was being filled by her own hands, a desperate yet thought-out hail Mary to the dream that still lived within her, and if she had to be someone else to achieve this.
She would turn into that person.
Her had softly guiding the pen over the registration form putting her chosen name into the paper.
Haru Urara, this would be her legacy name.
The entrance exam would come soon so she prepared enough money for the trip, dying her hair pink and taking all the necessary items to become an Umamusume, Haru stood ready.
With the excuse of going to a friend’s house she parted before her parents could even get a glimpse of her appearance
The exam went as well as one could expect from a human competing against Umamusume trying for the peak.
The written test went alright.
The practice race was abysmal for her.
Finally, there was an interview, and it was here where the small miracle Haru never thought it’d happened.
Symboli Rudolf, the Student Council President looked for her after her interview was over and told her personally that she had been accepted into Tracen and that while not running in the central circuit — The Twinkle Series — Tracen welcomed her with open arms.
Her parents never saw her return home that day, never seeing her again.
Three long years of struggle, loss and constant battling against her own body went by.
Today Haru’s race number 100 finished, with a second place Haru Urara stood one step closer to the realization of the dream of a child born wrong.
An Umamusume in human body.
“%&$...that is a name that does not matter” – Haru Urara.
—END—
—Mystic—
