In the end, Verxina never showed up after all, and Gotham Song could only let out a helpless sigh.
Maybe that was the normal outcome.
If all three Umamusume had really come knocking on her door one after another, then figuring out what attitude she ought to take with each of them would honestly have been a headache too...
In any case, Verxina had not come, so that probably meant today's business was finally over. Gotham Song returned to her room, washed up, lay down on her bed, and only then remembered what she had forgotten.
She had meant to check whether Frankel's novels were even capable of producing something that outrageously absurd...
But by the time she remembered, she was already in bed, so she could not even be bothered to remedy it anymore.
You're getting off with your life this time, Frankel...!
Gotham Song even teased herself with thoughts like that. No way Frankel would ever suddenly start yelling something like "Super Transformation," right?
No, that was too terrifying. That kind of thing did not belong in this world at all. Better not think about it.
Naturally, Gotham Song did not spend any more time on that line of thought. What her mind was really focused on right now was something else.
Namely, what had happened after she came back.
Almond Eye had called her away—called her away from Gentildonna, no less—so while the two of them had been talking, Gentildonna had actually been waiting at the gate ever since returning to Mejiro Manor.
Naturally, the moment Gotham Song came back, she told her everything that had been said in that second conversation.
Gentildonna showed no sign of fluster at all. If anything, she responded with a casual indifference that did not surprise Gotham Song in the least.
Namely—
"If it's Almond Eye, if it's my opponent, then of course she would realize something like that. If anything, I'm looking forward to seeing how she intends to break the plan I've made to build an advantage in the early part of the race."
The emotion blazing from Gentildonna was nothing less than battle-mad fervor, burning hot and bright!
She had probably prepared herself long ago for being read, targeted, and countered like this.
Or maybe that was simply the kind of person Gentildonna was.
The more someone wanted to defeat her, the more fiercely her fighting spirit burned in turn. After all, the thing she herself was chasing was strength itself...!
That really was a very, very Umamusume-like response.
Gotham Song did not quite know how to describe it. She had the distinct feeling that even if Almond Eye came up with the deadliest possible pursuit tactic Gotham Song herself could imagine, Gentildonna would only find it more exciting, not fall into despair over the possibility of losing.
After all, having an opponent push herself beyond her own limits just to try and beat you—that in itself was the kind of treatment only the strongest Umamusume could hope to receive, wasn't it?
Truthfully, Gotham Song had never been very sensitive to this sort of thing.
Cruel as it might sound, even if other Umamusume brought out power beyond their limits, even if they ran with the conviction that anything short of victory was death...
So what?
For Gotham Song, someone else's all-out effort might amount to nothing more than forcing her to take them seriously.
And why was she so insensitive to other people's fighting spirit and limits?
Because most of the time, even when they pushed past their limits, it still was not enough to catch up to a serious Gotham Song.
In a sense, that might even be one of the things that kept Gotham Song from becoming a "real" Umamusume.
Pure hot-blooded passion for running was one thing. But without the heart-pounding tension of truly being pitted against an opponent, the emotional impact was cut by far more than half.
So yes... this really was a foreign sort of feeling to her.
Gentildonna would even, on rare occasions, wear a smile that bordered on bloodthirsty in its fervor.
With that thought, Gotham Song turned her head and looked at Neo Universe, who had been lying quietly beside her all this time, gazing at her face.
"Neo, tell me—am I the biggest oddball in the entire Umamusume world?"
If anyone was the least Umamusume-like Umamusume, it had to be me, right?
She was not unhappy about that, exactly. It felt more like simple reflection than anything else.
Neo Universe blinked, as though she did not quite know how she was supposed to answer a question that sudden.
That came out of nowhere...!
But when it was Song, telling the truth was probably best.
That was just the kind of person Song was.
"If you're looking at it from that angle, then yes—Song really is the least Umamusume-like Umamusume."
"But from Neo Universe's point of view, Neo Universe thinks Song is actually the most Umamusume-like Umamusume of all. Everyone else is the one who feels less like an Umamusume."
What kind of answer even was that...?
Neo Universe had said it so bluntly and simply that Gotham Song froze for a moment, with absolutely no idea how she was supposed to respond.
How were you even capable of saying something with such strong I'd fight the whole world for your sake energy...?!
With that soft little mouth of yours, no less?!
What are you, some kind of grade-schooler?
Amused and helpless, Gotham Song grabbed Neo Universe's cheeks and kneaded them like dumplings.
She truly had not expected Neo Universe to say something like that.
Then again... if it was Neo Universe saying it, somehow it also felt perfectly normal.
Well, whatever. What was so bad about being the least Umamusume-like Umamusume? Maybe she was just the sail that would open the way to a new age of Umamusume. Maybe in the future, all Umamusume would strive to become the second Gotham Song.
Having no intention of thinking any further about that, Gotham Song rolled over and pressed herself against Neo Universe without leaving so much as a sliver of space between them.
What was the point of thinking about all that nonsense? If she had the time for that, she would be far better off appreciating how soft and warm her Neo was when hugged, how unbelievably good she felt in her arms—
And she was right here.
Right now.
At this very moment.
She could see her and touch her too!
Neo Universe was clearly startled by Gotham Song's sudden boldness, but after a brief delay, she wrapped her arms around Gotham Song in return and quietly enjoyed the hard-won warmth of the moment.
Song... hehe... Song...
And what was the girl beside her in bed thinking?
Gotham Song was thinking...
How, exactly, would the Shuka Sho end?
Almond Eye and Gentildonna... somehow, it felt like the two of you were going to collide in a shower of truly fierce sparks.
There was no way to know the answer to that question right now. Once she thought that through properly, Gotham Song had no desire to torture herself over it. So she simply gave up on thinking any further and drifted off to sleep, pressed snugly against Neo Universe.
...
The next morning, Gotham Song woke unusually early.
Ordinarily, her daily routine was so fixed and orderly it was practically unbreakable, but!
Whenever Gotham Song had something on her mind, that was the only time she ever broke her schedule.
When there was nothing weighing on her, she was a world-class champion at sleeping in—one of Mejiro Manor's permanent "special attention" cases.
But!
When she went to bed with worries in her heart, she would wake absurdly early. In fact, if she were not getting so much rest to begin with, then if Gotham Song went to sleep worried every night, she might well become the first Umamusume to literally work herself to death.
So yes—when it came to sleeping in, Gotham Song was elite, but when it came to waking up ridiculously early, she also had few equals. It really was absurd either way.
Gotham Song herself, however, did not care about that in the slightest. She simply got herself ready, washed up, changed clothes, and left her room.
She still could not quite let it go.
She had to find someone reliable to talk it over with.
And who, exactly, qualified as that reliable?
The answer came when Gotham Song abruptly slammed open the door to Dancing Brave's room and found the other Umamusume inside, utterly unconcerned by the commotion at the door and calmly reading the book in her hands.
It was as if Gotham Song's arrival had not surprised her in the slightest.
"You really aren't surprised at all, are you?"
"What would I be surprised about? This is your house, and it's not as though you haven't done this before."
Dancing Brave's reply was razor-sharp, packed with aggression and malice. For one reason or another, she would not really "go for the kill" against Gotham Song, but!
Even so, Dancing Brave was exactly the sort who could, through nothing more than conversation, lead Gotham Song straight into a pit she had carefully dug—one so deep that Gotham Song would only realize it once she hit the bottom.
This Umamusume was terrifying.
Gotham Song instantly took up a defensive posture, but clearly Dancing Brave had no intention of attempting the near-impossible feat of "mixed martial arts" against an Umamusume. If anything, she openly curled her lips into a smile, practically mocking Gotham Song's reaction.
That made Gotham Song's cheeks puff up for real.
Still, Dancing Brave knew perfectly well that if this kept going, Gotham Song was ninety percent likely to genuinely get worked up.
Granted, an overheated Gotham Song was adorable too, but...
She took too long to soothe afterward. By the time things got to that point, it would eat up far too much time and throw off the rhythm of daily life entirely. Better to switch over to cooling things down now.
After all, Dancing Brave had no intention of facing Gotham Song head-on.
Sorry, Song. I'll respond to you—but not right now.
"Ahem. All right, then. You didn't come looking for me just to bicker or trade useless nonsense, did you?"
So Gotham Song told Dancing Brave, in broad strokes, what had happened.
And really, it was quite a thorny situation.
Even more frightening than thorny, though, was the possibility that Gotham Song might actually bite her over it.
Calm down, Dancing Brave. It was not as if some sort of time machine existed. At a moment like this, all she could do was sort through what she had just heard properly and offer Gotham Song some valuable life advice.
"This really is the sort of thing that's hard to answer. Both sides have reasons they absolutely can't lose, and both sides have thoughts they can't let the other know. From that angle, you really shouldn't be getting involved at all, should you?"
"But it's not exactly some huge problem, and since you're already in it now, you may as well just go with the arrangement everyone accepted from the start."
"Let them win this race with their own strength. That's the kind of confidence a real Umamusume ought to have. Faced with defeat and a rival, what should burn inside them is the thought of how to carve their way through and seize victory."
"These two are grown Umamusume already. What is there to worry about? Besides, the Three Goddesses are watching over them. In a situation like this, on a stage like this, there's no way anything unexpected is going to happen."
"So rather than fussing over it, you may as well respect what they want and let Gentildonna and Almond Eye throw everything they've prepared into tearing each other apart on the racetrack."
"As for first place—there's no way either of them would ever give that up."
Once she thought it through that way, Gotham Song found that, like Dancing Brave, she no longer felt particularly tense about it.
Her case was different from everyone else's, though. Gotham Song's whole problem came from her own absurd level of strength.
Because she had never experienced anything quite like this before, she was only now truly realizing just how normal—and how romantic—it was for Umamusume to challenge one another before a race.
Just once in my life, it'd be nice if an Umamusume took me that seriously too. Sigh.
In any case, once her questions were settled, Gotham Song headed to the dining room to eat.
And then, on the first floor, she saw an Umamusume who left her utterly stunned.
Or rather, what shocked Gotham Song was not actually the Umamusume standing there.
It was the incredibly striking pile behind her—
Clothes, supplies, and assorted luggage.
In other words...
She's not actually planning to move into Mejiro Manor, is she?
Ahaha. And whose fault would that be, exactly? What a mystery.
Gotham Song had no desire whatsoever to think that thought through. She could only blink blankly, then turn to Almond Eye and ask,
"Are you... moving into Mejiro Manor?"
"Wait, wait, wait—why do you suddenly want to move into Mejiro Manor?"
As far as the others at Mejiro Manor were concerned, one extra room was obviously no problem. It was just a room, after all. The place was so huge they could clear out a guest room at random and it would be more than enough.
Faced with Gotham Song's question, however, Almond Eye looked entirely confident. She merely nodded at Gotham Song, as though her expression itself were saying:
Is that really not allowed, Song-san?
Well... it was allowed...!
If someone still managed to say no in a situation like this, then surely there would have to be something wrong with them.
Gotham Song's mouth twitched, and she ended up saying nothing at all.
Sigh. It looked like the days leading up to the Shuka Sho were going to be very interesting indeed.