In the world of Umamusume, there was a saying that had spread far and wide: "Humans and Umamusume are always creating different stories."
This line was often used as the opening to certain stories, but few people ever stopped to think about how the story between humans and Umamusume had begun in the first place.
Some said it was ordained by heaven. Some said it had been that way since ancient times. Others believed humans and Umamusume had originally been the same race, with only slight differences in appearance and physical ability.
"But unfortunately, all of those guesses are wrong. The truth isn't legendary, nor is it complicated. It's very simple. When they first met, humans shared some of their food with Umamusume."
At that time, Umamusume were not yet Umamusume, and they did not need food.
Or rather, the existence known as Umamusume had no need for material consumption in the first place. The reason things had developed into their current state was entirely due to the restrictions placed by the Three Goddesses.
But the Umamusume of that time still accepted that food, because although the food itself was not the "material" they needed, it contained "goodwill."
Goodwill—or rather, "emotion"—was their true food.
That was also the first time Umamusume "ate" in this world, and the first time they felt "goodwill."
After that, the story between humans and Umamusume began.
That said, although it was called the story between humans and Umamusume, the Umamusume of that time were not yet Umamusume.
They had no fixed form, no strict appearance, and not even any clear consciousness. They simply gathered around humans because of goodwill, helping humans, giving humans goodwill, and then receiving more goodwill in return.
After that, as they spent more time among humans, the "Umamusume" gradually began to develop consciousness and thought, and their forms gradually began drawing closer to humans.
As beings who had grown by feeding on goodwill, the consciousness they developed was also extremely kind. Toward humans in particular, they were especially friendly and fond, and humans responded to that goodwill. In the process, a virtuous cycle gradually formed.
"It's worth mentioning that human consciousness carries more weight than that of other species, and the emotions humans produce are richer as well. So after establishing a connection with humans, the number of 'Umamusume' began to increase sharply."
The increase in the number of "Umamusume" brought about the growth of the "Umamusume" race.
But at that time, Umamusume were still not Umamusume. They were closer to aggregates of consciousness. And because the emotions they consumed at the time were too similar, their nature was also similar. One could even say that the entire species had only one thought.
Help humans, and respond to their goodwill.
Then, based on that shared belief, an event similar to the aggregation of matter occurred among the "Umamusume." A considerable portion of the "Umamusume" who carried the same thoughts were drawn to one another, ultimately combining into a vast and majestic existence.
A god.
That was what humans at the time called It.
Humans believed in the god, and the god was full of goodwill toward humans. It sounded good, and in fact, it was good.
Because of this, the humans of this world lived better than humans of the same era in other worlds, while the god felt happy because It had helped humans, and received more goodwill as food.
But after that continued for some time, as the "god" gradually grew, It gradually realized that Its help to humans did not seem to amount to much.
After all, Its material existence was extremely thin. Most of the time, what It could do was, at most, help humans find prey, transmit information, observe the environment, or help humans avoid certain disasters.
Although those were all very useful things, for a god, it was not enough.
Because It could still see humans die in pain before It every day. Every day, people who were kind and devout toward It lost their lives in all sorts of circumstances. Every day, It could see people in pain and despair pray to It, while It could only watch everything happen helplessly, powerless to do anything.
But even that was not the worst of it.
The worst part was that after aggregating into a "god," through the Warp—or a place that could also be called the realm of consciousness—It could vaguely glimpse information from other worlds through resonance between emotions.
Civilization.
Civilization built by humans.
When humans in other worlds began to show the embryonic form of civilization, in the world where It existed, because of Its presence, interaction between humans decreased, and the pressure to survive lessened. As a result, the birth of civilization slowed, and might even never sprout at all, strangled in its cradle.
That made It feel fear.
What It wanted was to help humans. What It wanted was to answer their goodwill. But now, the result was that Its goodwill was strangling the possibility of human growth, instead making them unfortunate and miserable.
So It decided to do something.
"The specific records of what happened back then are no longer very clear. We only know that after a period of chaotic action, the 'god' found a way to solve the problem before It."
"Have you heard of 'resonance'? The phenomenon where objects produce sound because of sympathetic vibration."
"But the resonance we're talking about here isn't resonance in the physical sense. It's resonance of consciousness."
"To put it simply, the god used some method to make the consciousness of humans in this world resonate by imitating the consciousness of humans in other worlds. That way, humans in this world could obtain some of the achievements from other worlds and move along their developmental paths."
"And during this process of development, because the 'god' was regulating things, when humans in this world developed along the trajectories of other worlds, certain operations and adjustments could also be used to avoid the bad parts, such as war."
"And in this process, the ones serving as resonance nodes, and as the means of operation and adjustment, were Umamusume."
"Meaning 'Umamusume' in the current sense."
This world originally had no horses. That four-legged creature had never existed in this world from the very beginning.
But that gave the god an opportunity.
Because in other worlds, horses were usually close companions of humans, an indispensable part of human civilization.
And because this world had no horses, during resonance, that absence would affect the resonance's effect. If It created a kind of creature to replace horses, It could better help humans and make adjustments.
The god had also considered directly creating the creature known as a "horse," but unfortunately, It did not have the ability to create something from nothing. It had to borrow an existing physical entity—that is, humans—to indirectly create them, or rather, to grant emotion and consciousness to matter.
On the other hand, the god also had a certain selfish desire. Perhaps because It had accepted too much goodwill, the god did not want the relationship between this newly born existence and humans to be limited to the relationship between humans and horses in other worlds.
They should be closer than that.
That was what the god thought.
And so, Umamusume were born into the world.
"After that, many other things happened."
"The god was not omnipotent. When It first created Umamusume, there were many problems, even crises. At the very beginning, It even created beings with human bodies and horse heads. Later, the god repaired and improved them little by little, and only then was the existence of Umamusume stabilized."
"And during this process, the god also continued feeding on goodwill and growing stronger. But an existence that vast became somewhat difficult for It to bear. And as the number of consciousnesses increased, It ultimately chose to split Itself, dividing Its consciousness into three pieces, thereby guiding them toward different consciousnesses and also improving work efficiency."
"And so, the Three Goddesses were born."
In truth, there had not been any title like the Three Goddesses at first. And in the end, the god had never been a single individual. Even Its consciousness had not been fully unified. The division was merely made according to the three qualities that the "Umamusume" considered humanity's most beautiful: "courage," "wisdom," and "life."
However, later, because of resonance, in other worlds, three horses famous as the foundation sires of racing because of their numerous descendants had become too well known. And because they also, in a certain sense, fit the circumstances of this world's Umamusume origins, with even the number matching, rumors of the Three Goddesses appeared. After countless derivative works, derivative works of derivative works, and nth-order derivative works, the three split gods were forced to acknowledge that identity.
"I have a guess about 'resonance,'" Kitahara said.
"Let's hear it." Eclipse nodded, conveying the words of the person by her ear.
"If 'resonance' is carried out by imitating the consciousness of other worlds, combined with what you said before about Umamusume being resonance nodes."
"Then can I understand the so-called resonance as having Umamusume follow the destinies of the original horses from other worlds, advancing along the corresponding destinies, thereby driving this entire world to advance along the destinies of those other worlds?"
"You can put it that way."
But there was a problem here.
Ever since the appearance of steam cars, horses in other worlds had gradually faded out of human civilization.
To other worlds, that was merely equivalent to the replacement of tools. But to this world, once the resonance of horses was lost, and the ability to resonate with the destinies of other worlds and borrow—copy homework from—the development of other worlds disappeared, this world would be unable to maintain its current development.
"And so, racing Umamusume were born. By increasing the influence of individual nodes and raising the efficiency and impact of resonance, we could still maintain this development."
"But this maintenance could only ever be temporary."
"Humans in other worlds are still developing. The presence of horses is growing thinner and thinner, and one day, they will fade from humanity's field of vision. When that time comes, resonance will completely fail."
"But originally, according to our projections, there should still have been some time. Holding out for at least a few more decades, or even a century or two, was not impossible. During that time, perhaps we could have found a solution—though the hope was slim."
"But accidents happened."
"The birth of a new god, an intruder from outside, and fluctuations transmitted from a distant place..."
"Too many accidents."
"Accidents always happen in the world."
Kitahara nodded, then suddenly reacted.
"Wait. This intruder you mentioned... wouldn't happen to be me, would it?"
"What do you think?"
Eclipse looked at him calmly.
Silence.
Faced with Eclipse's gaze, the ease on Kitahara's face gradually faded. In the end, with a sigh, it all turned serious.
"So, the one speaking with me right now—is it Eclipse, or... the three honored goddesses?"
"Not the three goddesses. Only one."
Eclipse's tone was calm. Then she added,
"The other two never say anything serious, so I already had Eclipse block them."
Kitahara: "?"
Was there something wrong with this goddess?
"Then you are?"
"You can call me Byerley."
Byerley Turk conveyed her words through Eclipse.
"Back to the main point. After saying all that, I believe you already understand why I said the sport of Umamusume racing may fade away."
I don't understand...
Although he very much wanted to say that, an answer had already surfaced in Kitahara's mind.
"My existence destroyed the original trajectory of Umamusume destinies, which led to the failure of resonance. The sport of Umamusume racing has lost its reason to exist."
Eclipse shook her head.
"It is not only you. This is the result of many factors acting together. If it were only you, modifying some destinies would not matter. But the birth of a new god, Eclipse's participation in races, and many, many other factors... together, they ultimately forged this result."
In reality, a small amount of destiny alteration would not affect anything. After all, the horses of other worlds did not originally receive the treatment Umamusume received in this world either. The existence of Umamusume itself was already a rewriting of destiny.
But now, under the accumulation of various factors, the proportion of changes and the fluctuations of destiny had far exceeded the limit resonance could withstand.
"Can it still be saved?" Kitahara asked tentatively.
"Yes, but there is already no need."
Eclipse looked calmly at Kitahara.
"You did not harm anyone. The ones that caused damage to this world were not you or Eclipse. Rather, the existence of this world itself has a fundamental problem."
"It was already walking toward disappearance. One could even call it the afterglow of a setting sun. Everything happening now has merely accelerated the final stretch of that process. At its essence, it is not your fault."
But then whose fault was it?
The god had only wanted to help humans. Humans had not betrayed the god. Umamusume deeply loved humans, and humans deeply loved Umamusume. They had depended on one another until today, creating countless stories.
Kitahara helping Umamusume was naturally not wrong. In fact, if humans had not possessed goodwill toward Umamusume, none of this would have happened at all.
Everything began with goodwill, and everything ended with goodwill.
Shanish's words echoed by Kitahara's ear, and he finally understood their meaning.
And although Byerley had not said it, Kitahara was actually very clear that in other worlds, the greatest driving force behind human development and progress had never been love and peace.
Division brought unity. Hatred brought affection. Death brought new life. Vanity and a sense of superiority were the staircase of human progress. The more unfair things were, the greater the gap, the more motivation humans had to climb upward and compete inwardly.
Harsh environments forged resilient spirits. Scarce resources forced development and expansion. On the contrary, warm and stable environments made people lose the drive to advance. In the end, the area that seemed to have the richest resources and the best conditions was instead the most backward part of human civilization.
All positive and negative emotions complemented one another. Divinity, beastliness, and humanity all existed within the human body at the same time. It was all of these together that formed complete people one by one, and formed human civilization. No matter which piece was missing, everything would be completely different.
Teio, off to the side, had already gone completely blank-eyed.
She could not keep up with the train of their conversation at all, and she had no idea what kind of creature a "horse" was supposed to be.
She had only understood one sentence.
The sport of Umamusume racing might be about to fade away.
"Or even if it doesn't fade away, its future development will change drastically. After all, if horses fade from the field of vision of human civilization, then Umamusume will have no object to resonate with anymore. Umamusume will no longer be restricted by the destiny of the creature known as a 'horse,' so all kinds of strange existences may emerge."
"Even in a certain sense, Eclipse, as well as the Umamusume trained by you, Kitahara, have already surpassed the category of ordinary Umamusume. To a certain degree, they can already be regarded as the beginning of mutation."
"But even so, there is still one Umamusume on your team who can barely be gathered under the category of 'normal.'"
As she spoke, she turned her gaze toward Teio, her tone softening slightly.
"Girl, there is no more time for sorrow."
"Run, while you can still run."
"Go and pull down the curtain on this era with your own hands."
---
T/N: HUUUUUUUUUUUUUH i had no idea what i was typing, guys can someone dumb it down for me
bonus chaps
200 stones -> 1 chapter
400 stones -> 2 chapters
600 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
hehe every 100 followers on either instagram or twitter is 5 bonus chapters...? (for all tls ongoing)
discord.gg/wisetl
patreon.com/wisetl
instagram: hanbaowise
twitter: WiseKingOfUruk_