Chapter 166: Dragon Fanga Hero

At Tracen Academy in Paris, France.

In a trainer’s office tucked away in a corner of the first floor of the Trainer Building—once vacant just a few months ago, but now thoroughly colored by its new occupant’s personality—

a single trainer sat at his desk, fingers clattering rapidly across the keyboard.

The demanding nature of a trainer’s job was no different between Japan and France.

If anything, France—directly connected to neighboring countries and far closer to them in practical terms—tended to be even busier than Japan due to the sheer volume of international procedures involved.

And so, today as well, the trainer found himself buried in work.

…Of course, the cause of this relentless workload wasn’t entirely his own doing.

To put it bluntly, roughly ninety percent of the reason stood right beside him—

or rather, had just come charging in.

"Just got back—I’m baaaack, Trainer!!"

The very source of the past six months of nonstop hard work burst straight into the trainer’s office.

With a loud BANG, the door flew open as one Uma Musume stormed inside.

Golden hair tinged with brown swayed behind her, a tiara-shaped ornament adorning her left ear.

Despite her small frame, she radiated overwhelming energy in every sense as she approached her trainer with a bright, full-faced smile.

"Sorry to keep you waiting~"

"Welcome back. You’re pretty late, Anne."

Originally, his assigned Uma Musume—Anne—had been scheduled to return over two hours ago.

Right around the expected time, however, a message had arrived:

Sorry, Trainer! I’m gonna run a little longer!

Then, every thirty minutes, another extension followed—Just a bit more! Almost done!—like someone endlessly adding time to a karaoke session.

And just like that, the delay stretched into two full hours.

Yet even words that sounded suspiciously close to a reprimand failed to discourage her. Anne merely scratched her cheek shyly.

"I really meant to come back right away, but… once I actually met her, she was way more incredible than I expected.

I couldn’t calm down afterward, so I ended up running a lot more!"

"So… have you cooled off now?"

Anne shook her head vigorously, her ash-gray eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Not even close! Seriously—Hoshino Wilm is insane! Like, five times crazier than I imagined!"

The name she spoke belonged to an overseas Uma Musume—

the monster of the East whom Anne admired above all else.

---

The name of his trainee was Understandible.

Currently undefeated with four wins from four races, she was rapidly ascending toward stardom after securing consecutive victories in G1 Oaks races.

As if chasing after Hoshino Wilm herself—though not entirely by coincidence—she had emerged this year as either the greatest challenger to the Eastern Dragon in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe… or even its leading favorite.

However, she had not always carried such expectations.

Nor had she always been this passionate about racing.

At the time of their contract, she had been profoundly unmotivated, showing little enthusiasm for training.

Her physical development came late, her abilities slow to bloom, and her pedigree lacked any particularly eye-catching prestige. During selection races, she had begun her career almost completely unknown.

…Until one fateful encounter changed everything.

By chance, she watched footage of Hoshino Wilm’s race—

and was deeply shaken by that running style.

From that moment onward, she transformed.

She became proactive in both training and competition, began delivering outstanding performances, and rapidly blossomed into a top-class racing Uma Musume.

Even now, she continued running alongside her trainer toward a single ultimate goal:

To face Hoshino Wilm at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe—and defeat her.

…However, the difficulty of that goal bordered on the impossible.

Understandible’s debut had been delayed due to mental struggles and late physical maturation, slipping all the way to late April of this year.

As a result, only six months remained between her debut and the Arc.

While it was not unheard of for Classic-class Uma Musume in Europe to perform well at the Arc—

a mere six months of experience remained an enormous disadvantage.

She had less time to train than her rivals, less time to accumulate the fan support required for elite race entry, and yet she aimed to win the greatest turf race in the world.

At this point, it was practically a challenge against the impossible.

And then there was Hoshino Wilm.

Her extreme front-running style—ōnige—capable of overwhelming pacemakers and throwing entire races into chaos.

Monstrous stamina that allowed her to unleash a devastating finishing kick even after running distances equivalent to 3200 meters, regardless of turf differences.

Speed so incomprehensible she could rival—and sometimes surpass—late chargers and closers alike.

Different race environments might prevent her from displaying her full strength, but that hardly made her any less terrifying.

And beyond Hoshino Wilm, numerous other formidable Uma Musume awaited.

To put it bluntly, compared to them, Anne’s previous races almost faded into insignificance.

Yet despite all that, neither trainer nor runner shrank from the challenge.

"Taking on the impossible sounds great! If we’re challenging the ‘Dragon that overturns impossibility,’ it has to be this hard!"

If anything, Anne was fired up.

“Overturning the impossible” was a phrase often used to describe her idol.

Breaking through supposedly absolute bloodline barriers.

Winning the Takarazuka Kinen—long believed unwinnable.

Even achieving a Triple Crown through front-running, a tactic once considered fundamentally disadvantageous.

Hoshino Wilm had proven her singular existence to Japan—and to the world.

At the time, Anne herself had not been deeply interested in racing, yet even within French Uma Musume circles, those achievements had caused a massive uproar.

In Europe, front-running had long been viewed not as a strategy for victory.

Within a racing culture dominated by rabbits controlling pace for teammates, leading meant sacrificing one’s own chance to win.

That common sense began to collapse several years ago.

A dimensional escape artist who rampaged across global races through the reckless evolution of front-running—extreme escape running—

Silence Suzuka.

Her existence sparked renewed evaluation of the running style throughout Europe.

Then, with Hoshino Wilm’s rise last year, that reevaluation became firmly established.

European turf, where pace often slowed mid-race, still made such tactics difficult to replicate locally—

but there was no denying that Silence Suzuka and Hoshino Wilm had forced Europe to acknowledge the overwhelming presence of the ōnige style.

Hearing all this, Anne had thought:

If she intended to challenge such an opponent, overcoming hardship or two was only natural.

And besides—if her opponent was hailed as a hero, surely fans would want trials worthy of that legend.

She was always forward-looking, brimming with confidence.

“…Well, going undefeated and winning consecutive Oaks just two months after debut already counts as challenging the impossible,” her trainer said with a wry smile. “Since you actually pulled it off, the fans are bound to start dreaming even bigger.”

Though he joked, the trainer himself felt no fear toward the goal.

He had been permitted exclusive contracts with Uma Musume for five years.

Hardly a veteran—if anything, still closer to a beginner.

Yet his mentor, a renowned trainer who had taught him everything about the profession, once told him:

"At the very least, your eye for talent is reliable."

Every Uma Musume he personally scouted possessed extraordinary potential.

So much so that—

if she truly gave her all, and he guided her correctly, victory might come almost naturally.

Perhaps even quickly enough to claim the title of the world’s strongest without seeming out of place.

…But even so—

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Fan performances for G1 races like the Arc, promotional obligations announcing race entries, and of course training itself—

countless tasks still lay before them.

And what Anne had done today was one of those necessary steps toward victory.

She had gone scouting the enemy.

---

Who would be the greatest threat in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe?

For Anne’s trainer, answering that question was extremely difficult.

After all, this was an international G1—the prestigious Arc itself.

Participants would include each nation’s strongest runners, along with their supporting rabbits.

Many would arrive from overseas, leaving gaps in available intelligence. Even their compatibility with local turf remained unknown.

Simply put, there were too many uncertainties to accurately measure anyone’s strength.

Unless Uma Musume ability could somehow be quantified numerically, precise comparisons were impossible.

…Yet there was one thing the trainer knew with certainty.

His own Uma Musume possessed extraordinarily sharp racing instincts.

And if she was paying that much attention—

then there could be no doubt.

At the very least, Hoshino Wilm was unquestionably a top-tier threat.

That was precisely why this investigation had been necessary.

And not merely observation during races… but something far more direct.

"Then why don’t we just meet her in person while pretending it’s a coincidence and investigate that way?"

Whether it should be called a brilliant idea or a terrible one was debatable.

The plan Anne proposed was, frankly speaking, somewhat lacking in moral restraint.

In fact, it had also been Anne who tracked down Hoshino Wilm’s training base through social media posts, analyzed her independent training routes, and even pinpointed the exact time those sessions began.

Perhaps it was only fitting for someone who proudly called herself France’s number-one Hoshino Wilm fan—

she clearly possessed outstanding talent as a stalker… or rather, an overenthusiastic follower.

Her trainer found the situation slightly disturbing.

As someone with proper social common sense, he had argued that casually approaching an Uma Musume from another country—one treated almost like a state guest, and whose temperament remained unknown—was inappropriate.

"But I’m a Hoshino Wilm fan! It’s totally natural for a fan to want to meet their star, right!?"

That logic ultimately steamrolled him.

To begin with, he had been the one who recognized Anne’s extraordinary talent and personally scouted her.

Once she pushed hard enough, refusing her simply wasn’t an option.

---

“…Alright then. Let’s go over it again. After actually meeting Japan’s monster—did she look beatable?”

His trainee, Understandible, possessed exceptionally sharp racing instincts.

In past races, even brief interaction with other Uma Musume had allowed her to grasp differences in ability almost instantly.

Which was precisely why her impression after meeting Hoshino Wilm mattered so much.

Depending on her answer, their future training plans—or even their entire racing strategy—might require fundamental revision.

So the trainer asked, unable to hide the tension in his voice.

The answer he received from his smiling trainee, however, exceeded his expectations—in the worst possible way.

"Yeah, impossible! No way we can beat that!"

The trainer’s eyes widened at Anne’s cheerful declaration.

“…That’s unusual coming from you.”

Understandible, despite appearances, was an extremely prideful Uma Musume—one who possessed what could only be described as a champion’s pride.

From her Make Debut race through the Open class and even into G1 competitions, she had consistently declared:

"Winning is obvious. What matters is how much I can learn from this race, right?"

And just as she claimed, she had won them all with apparent ease.

She possessed both the talent to say such things—and the ability to make them reality.

If Hoshino Wilm was considered the greatest natural talent in the East, then some voices claimed Understandible held that same distinction in Europe.

Which made her blunt admission—I can’t win—utterly unexpected.

More accurately, he never believed her pride would allow her to say it.

Meanwhile, Anne simply laughed casually, completely overturning his expectations.

"Man, seeing the real thing up close? The pressure was completely insane! She wasn’t even in race mode, but she still felt way, way, way above every Uma Musume I’ve ever faced!

And having my idol right in front of me totally fried my brain—I couldn’t even talk properly! Haha! So embarrassing!"

"I even studied Japanese a lot too…" she added with mild frustration—

though she failed entirely to hide the excitement of meeting her favorite.

Her legs and tail swayed energetically like a child’s as she grinned from ear to ear.

To be clear, the Uma Musume she had faced until now were by no means weak.

Though that year’s field had been slightly less dominant than usual, they were still G1-class runners, each possessing genuine strength and defining traits.

And yet, if they truly couldn’t even compare—

“…No. That’s not the point right now.”

Shaking his head as if to dispel an unpleasant thought, the trainer refocused.

His role was to guide an Uma Musume.

Not to indulge in speculation—but to devise countermeasures against the threat before them.

“…Alright. For now, give me your full report. What exactly did you investigate?”

"Okay!"

Her energy higher than ever, Anne closed her eyes.

Then—

when she opened them again, the excitement vanished instantly.

In its place stood Understandible, the racing Uma Musume.

She spoke calmly.

“…First, just like we predicted, the range of her hypersensory perception is a little over twenty meters.

And as expected, the sense itself is most likely auditory. I’d say that’s almost certain.”

“Impressive. That’s remarkably precise.”

“I planned everything carefully today. No loose ends.”

She was undeniably a devoted fan of Hoshino Wilm—

but at the same time, she was also one of the racers challenging the Eastern Dragon herself.

While genuinely enjoying her encounter with her idol, she had still carried out her investigation flawlessly.

One of those targets had been Hoshino Wilm’s so-called super senses.

According to Anne, Hoshino Wilm undoubtedly possessed at least one extraordinarily enhanced sense.

Reviewing her races revealed moments where she reacted to pursuing runners at distances where detection should have been impossible.

At times, she even smiled as though instinctively recognizing rivals approaching from behind.

To be honest, the trainer himself had never noticed anything so abnormal.

Whether Anne discovered it through fanatical devotion—or through razor-sharp racing intuition—

either way, she had used what was likely her only opportunity to meet Hoshino Wilm in person to verify the hypothesis.

…and it appeared she had succeeded.

“The detection itself is extremely precise, but when I matched my footsteps perfectly… it seemed like she couldn’t hear me.

But even the slightest deviation got detected immediately. Pulling that off during an actual race would be incredibly difficult.”

“…From what you told me, Seiun Sky supposedly used that method, correct?”

“Yeah. I think she went that far solely to shut down Hoshino Wilm.

Which honestly just shows how incredible Hoshino Wilm is—making her predecessors go to such extremes!”

“Or perhaps we should be praising Seiun Sky’s obsession with preparation…”

Seiun Sky.

An Uma Musume said to be a contemporary—and rival—of the famed El Condor Pasa, who once delivered a legendary performance at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

She had pursued victory to that extent—

and even so, Hoshino Wilm had overcome it.

That alone spoke volumes about how terrifying an opponent Hoshino Wilm truly was.

Watching her trainer reflect on the Japanese racers and their strategies, Anne relaxed her serious expression and smiled wryly.

“But honestly, I don’t think that option exists anymore.

That tactic only worked because Classic-class Hoshino Wilm’s physical stats were still below Seiun Sky’s back then.

She could compete while running outside her natural style—that’s why it worked.

Against the completely absurd Wilm we have now? That strategy wouldn’t hold up. If you don’t challenge her at full power from start to finish, you won’t even reach her back before it’s over.”

“I see.”

From the trainer’s perspective, that conclusion made perfect sense.

He had occasionally heard that, unlike Europe, Classic-class runners rarely dominated in Japan.

In fact, until the Takarazuka Kinen held each June, history recorded no instance of a Classic-class Uma Musume outperforming Senior-class competitors.

The first—and so far only—exception had been last year’s Takarazuka Kinen.

…A fact the trainer knew extremely well, having heard it nearly a hundred times from his own trainee.

It was likely a tactic that worked precisely because the race favored Seiun Sky while placing Hoshino Wilm at a disadvantage.

Though in the end, Hoshino Wilm unleashed an unbelievable finishing burst and overtook not only Seiun Sky, but the entire field.

Still, had that near-miraculous awakening not occurred, victory would almost certainly have gone to Seiun Sky.

At least once, it had been an effective strategy.

…That said—

a strategy meeting couldn’t end without identifying any counterplay.

So the trainer asked directly.

“Then did you find any weakness in Hoshino Wilm?”

A racing Uma Musume’s weakness wasn’t limited to physical shortcomings.

Bad racing habits.

Track-direction compatibility.

Mental fragility. Overexcitement.

Distraction, complacency, or arrogance toward rivals.

Even a single flaw could become a decisive opening.

Which made Anne’s answer critically important—

Yet she simply shook her head, smiling brightly.

“None!”

“…I see.”

“Well, if I had to name something, I did sense faint arrogance deep in her eyes—the confidence of the strong.

But it’s not pride or vanity. It’s the same thing I have: absolute certainty that she’ll win.

And judging from her social media, she genuinely enjoys both training and racing. A natural-born racing addict.

There’s no way we can count on complacency.”

"Haha… yeah, we’re in trouble."

She grinned from ear to ear.

Watching his delighted trainee, the trainer quietly held his head in his hands.

She had always been somewhat temperamental and difficult to handle—

but now, her disposition had become troublesome in an entirely different way from when they first signed their contract.

Understandible likely held greater expectations for Hoshino Wilm than anyone else in the world.

Her eyes, mind, and heart had been burned by Wilm’s Derby performance—the moment that inspired her to truly run.

She had become not merely an overwhelmingly devoted fan…

but someone who desired an opponent impossibly vast—someone forever just beyond reach.

Cradling her cheeks in her hands, face flushed, she murmured almost as if singing.

Her expression resembled that of a girl in love—

yet one decisive difference remained.

The corners of her lips curled upward, revealing sharp canine teeth glinting beneath.

"Ahh… yeah. Just as I thought. The current me can’t beat her.

What should I do? What should I do!? How am I supposed to defeat her from here…?

Ahh, I can’t wait. I’m so excited!"

Yes.

Understandible was not merely a normal girl admiring an idol.

She longed for strength—and burned her very life to surpass it.

In that sense, she was the same as Hoshino Wilm:

a natural-born racing Uma Musume.

To her, Hoshino Wilm was both the ultimate idol and the ultimate rival—

the destined opponent she had finally encountered after a lifetime of searching.

Smiling wryly at how unmistakably herself his trainee was being, the trainer spoke again.

“…Well, we’ll have to figure something out.

She’s a front-running escape-type Uma Musume. Race developments rarely work against her.

In other words, her performance fluctuations are minimal—she can consistently deliver stable results.

For now… let’s observe the Prix Foy. Since it’ll be run on our home turf, we should be able to gauge her strength more clearly.

There’s always the chance she’s struggling to adapt.”

The trainer nodded to himself—

only to be interrupted.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk… too naïve, Trainer."

Anne grinned mischievously.

"The Star Dragon isn’t losing to something like course compatibility.

She’s someone who flies through the sky. No piece of land could ever bind her.

And besides… once the final stretch begins, she even uses that weird ‘thinking acceleration’ ability!

She’ll definitely win the Prix Foy—and become the greatest rival I could ever ask for!"

---

What radiated from Understandible was admiration, curiosity, longing, imagination—and hostility.

In other words—

the same pure heat that Hoshino Wilm herself loved and embodied.

The raw passion of an Uma Musume.

Two racing Uma Musume—

similar in some ways, opposites in others:

Hoshino Wilm and Understandible.

Which flame would burn hotter—

and drive an Uma Musume farther forward?

The day that question would be answered was drawing ever closer.