Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tracen academy had nearly transformed overnight: paper lanterns swung from archways, festive stalls lined the grounds, and the smell of grilled yakitori and candied chestnuts floated through the autumn air.

Rice hugged her arms to her chest as she drifted past it all, trying not to stand out. A few stands down, she could hear Gold Ship heckling some poor shopkeeper about ‘inspecting his goldfish to ensure quality control’ before an exasperated McQueen intervened. Lips curving faintly, she kept moving. Joy like that always seemed just a little out of reach for someone like her.

Navigating past the caramelised apple stands and flinching at the crisp snap of pennants in the breeze, Rice Shower soon found herself standing before a gigantic banner stretched over the notice board, covering all the other papers and documents. It read: ‘Tracen School Festival – Harmony Relay for Foal Care!’ in blocky, colourful letters.

“Ooooh! Rice-chan! Look, look! They’re doing the Harmony Relay again this year!” A spry, excited voice called out beside her. It belonged to none other than Haru Urara, the peppiest, most optimistic racer this side of the Northern Hemisphere.

“Yes… I wonder what the event will be about this year…” The quiet uma musume tilted her head, brushing her locks from her eye. “Are… you going to enter, Urara-chan?”

The Harmony Relay was a novelty race that the school did yearly, usually for charity work. The objective of the races changed every year and were infamous for being quite… non-standard. Last year, the contestants had to collect apples throughout the race, with their total score being dictated by the amount they’d gotten. This didn’t stop many of the runners from devouring them mid-race, however. Despite being known as a speed demon, Oguri Cap came dead last in the race without a single apple to her name. Suffice to say, competition and consistency were not really the Harmony Relay’s strong suits.

The pink-haired horse girl’s eyes sparkled as she scanned the sign-up sheet. “Oh, of course I’m gonna! I might not be very good at the graded races, but I can feel it - this’ll be my big break!”

“Um… I hope you’ll win, then…” Rice Shower’s hooves scraped faint grooves into the dirt, unsure of how to continue the conversation.

“There’s just one problem, though…” Haru plucked a flyer off a nearby wall, “This year’s race requires two students to participate.”

Rice Shower’s eyes narrowed against the fine print. Yes, Haru was right - this year’s race was to be run in pairs, both girls bound together at the ankle. Officially, it was billed as a training exercise to promote teamwork, coordination, and communication skills. But Rice Shower knew it would, in truth, just be a spectacle of embarrassment and chaos wrapped up nicely in the generous donations from audience members who “sponsored” their favorite duos.

“Do you… not have a partner?”

Haru stared at the signup sheet for a long moment, her smile faltering just a little. “Well… no,” She admitted at last, her voice dropping softer. “I asked a couple people earlier, but they all said they weren’t participating in the race, or they were too busy to… slow down.”

Rice shifted uneasily, fingers curled up against her sleeve. She knew the undertones present in their words, they didn’t want Haru because she’d never won. She held back a grimace, appalled at their ignorance; and hoping Haru hadn’t caught on yet.

“What about your roommate, King Halo?”

“Uh, she said she wasn’t going to be running at all, something about it not being ‘first-rate to run with her leg tied to someone else’s’. She’s just gonna donate instead.”

“What about Team Spica? I’m sure the quirky people there wouldn’t mind running with you?”

“I think Special Week’s doing it with Silence Suzuka, and Gold Ship’s off having tea with Mejiro McQueen…”

“I see…”

“But that’s okay!” Haru continued quickly, perking up again in that way she always did, like she could just will any hurt into disappearing. “I’ll still enter, even if I have to run with one leg tied to a… uh… concrete slab or something! It’s for the foals, after all!”

“That… doesn’t sound particularly safe.” Rice frowned.

“Maybe not,” Haru replied, kicking a pebble with her heel, “But why not? I mean… this could finally be my chance, the one race where I don’t come last… I’ll experience how it feels to stand at the top of the podium… for once.” Her eyes grew dreamy, before she shook her head comically and returned to the present, “A-Anyways, enough about me, what about you, Rice? Are you gonna run?”

“I don’t know… I’ve never been one for running…”

“That’s not true! We all saw how you overtook Mihono during the Kikuka Sho, the entire school knows about it!”

“... Please don’t remind me about that.” Rice Shower brought a hand up to her temples.

“Okay, well, this race is very casual. I don’t think anyone will judge you for where you place!”

“Weren’t you just talking about how much you wanted to win a second ago?” Rice raised an eyebrow.

“Um…” Haru rubbed her hands together awkwardly. “Uh… N-nevermind that! Why not give it a shot? At least say you tried, maybe it’ll be more fun than you expected!”

“I guess…”

“... J-Just think about it, okay?” In an uncharacteristic manner, Rice Shower saw Haru’s eyes dart to and fro, as if she had just walked in on her doing something she shouldn’t have done.

And then, it all dawned on her. Rice Shower suddenly understood the game Haru Urara was playing at: she wanted a partner. But given the fact that her previous attempts in asking upfront had all led to rejection, she was clearly trying to be more subtle with it.

Although the chatter of the crowd was loud, the silence following Urara’s words blotted them out. She was still smiling, but it was strained - it was the kind of smile you had to force yourself to hold longer than you’d like so they wouldn’t suspect anything and worry about you.

Rice Shower gulped and looked down at herself, she’d already struggled enough in running normally, what with her aura of misfortune and her generally unfavourable public perception as a ‘heel’ ever since the Mihono Bourbon incident - She didn’t really fancy having to run a course while being humiliated in front of the entire crowd.

Adding on to the fact that the last time she signed up for this race, the entire racecourse became flooded the next day. What was supposed to be a race ended up turning into more of a slip ‘n’ slide event instead, one where the competitors had their racing clothes soaked to the brim.

Predictably, everyone had laughed it off back then, calling it all a coincidence, and saying that whole ordeal brought about a certain uniqueness and enriched the relay. But Rice knew better. Whenever she joined in, things went wrong. And this time it was a charity event, meant to make everyone happy… If she ruined that, she’d never forgive herself.

But when Haru’s ears flattened, and her tail gave a slow, uncertain sway. Rice found herself suddenly overcome with a wave of empathy… all of her previous reasons felt so… selfish.

Rice’s heart squeezed painfully at the thought, but after much deliberation, she steeled her nerves. “… Alright. I’ll be your partner.”

“Really?!” Haru beamed, grabbing her by both hands. “Yay! Rice-chan, you’re the best! This is gonna be umazing! If we lose, we lose together. But if we win…” Her eyes lit up like she was picturing it already. “If we win, they’ll be cheering for us.”

Rice managed a thin smile and a shaky nod of her head. Though in the pit of her stomach, she wasn’t sure if she’d just made the best decision… or the worst. Well, if it made Haru Urara glad, she’d take that risk.

And… maybe it wouldn’t be bad to hear the audience cheering her on for once, either…

It was only right before the first practice when rationality finally dawned on Rice Shower and she realised just how terrible this idea was.

The morning mist still clung to the Tracen Academy track when Rice Shower met up with Haru Urara, who bounced into the practice field with a grin so wide you’d think she’d already won the whole race.

“G-Good morning…” She gave a polite wave, eyeing down at the grass, which was still wet from the dawn’s drizzle.

“Rice-chan, you came~!” Haru responded by flinging her entire right arm about, before dashing right over. “So, let’s get started, shall we? We’re gonna need all the training we can get if we wanna win this thing!”

“Yes, I did say I would.” She glanced at the collection of cones and hoops scattered about the track, “Did you bring this out for our practice?”

“You betcha!” Haru nodded, already looping the rope around their ankles with all the precision of someone who had never tied a knot in her life. Rice bit back a smile and knelt to adjust the knot properly, her nimble fingers working to secure loose ends Haru left behind.

By the time the rope was snug and firm against their legs, Rice felt a sudden jolt about her as Haru stood up far too quickly for her to process. This caused her to be yanked from the floor with an embarrassed yelp as she felt one of her legs essentially move with a mind of its own.

“Oops, sorry, Rice-chan.” Haru gasped, leaning down to support a flustered Rice Shower with one leg splayed across the dirt.

When they finally stood, side by side, Haru’s grin seemed to radiate enough heat to chase away the morning chill. “Alright,” Rice said quietly. “Are you ready to start, Urara-chan?”

“I was born ready!” The excitable Uma musume pumped one fist up in the air.

Oh, how Rice Shower wished she could be half as expressive as Haru was…

As they shot over the starting line, Rice swiftly realised that their very first step together as a team… was nothing short of a disaster. She had chosen to move her bound leg, whereas Haru moved her free one. The result? Haru slipped over instantly and landed on her bottom, her loss of balance inadvertently taking Rice Shower to the ground with her.
“Oof!” Urara winced, rubbing her behind with a grimace.

“S-Sorry! I… That was all my fault… Oh goodness, a-are you okay?”

“Don’t worry about it, Rice-chan! I probably should’ve been more vocal with what leg I was gonna start with, now let’s try again. One fall won’t be enough to get me down!”

After getting their bearings and announcing which leg they were going to make that first stride with, they left the starting line once again… only to trip over one another’s limbs and crumple into an unceremonious heap. This time, Haru’s natural speed meant she tried to pull them forward in long strides, while Rice’s cautious, measured steps acted like a brake. The rope pulled taut with every misaligned step, their knees knocking together in increasingly awkward rhythm until, predictably, they stumbled again.

“Well, look on the bright side, we made it about a quarter of the way there. Yeah, that’s better than before, right? Go us!” Haru picked herself up, clearly the loss having not impacted her one bit.

“Maybe,” Rice began, brushing a clump of mud off her tracksuit, “We should try… smaller steps?”

“Okay, baby steps first, and then we zoom!”

“Um… that’s not exactly what I meant…!”

Their next attempt had both girls counting aloud their steps, trying to remain as synced up as possible. At first it went alright, Haru’s voice obviously overshadowed Rice’s, but the latter’s voice was just strong enough to serve as a sort of metronome for when Haru’s rhythm inevitably veered off course.

However, about halfway down the track,  Haru’s impatience got the better of her. She surged ahead without warning.

“Haru… W-Wait-!!” Rice half-yelped, half-shrieked to no avail. Their mismatched paces tangled once more, leading to a panicked Rice Shower accidentally stepping onto Haru’s shoe in the process, flinging them face first into the soil for the umpteenth time that day.

“…If we win this,” Rice murmured with her hair still coated with debris, “It’ll be a miracle…

“Then let’s make a miracle happen! Can’t be that hard, right?” Haru giggled innocently, as if entirely unaware of the manner in which miracles operated. The pink-haired Uma musume sat up and held out her hand. “C’mon, partner, we’ve got this!”

Internally, Rice Shower was screaming, but considering she was tied by the leg, the horse girl had no other choice but to accept the outstretched hand.

Before Haru could drag her up for another round, from the bleachers, a slow clap echoed mockingly across the field.

Rice stiffened, brushing mud off her cheek as her eyes darted to the source. Of course it was Gold Ship, lounging sideways across the bench like she owned the place.

“Bravo, bravo!” Gold Ship hollered, cupping her hands around her mouth. “That was the most synchronised faceplant I’ve ever seen! You two should forget about racing and join the circus!”

“Really?” Haru blinked innocently, “I’ve always wondered how it feels to swing on a trapeze…”

“... I don’t think that was a compliment, Urara-chan.” Rice Shower’s ears drooped.

“Awwww, don’t misinterpret my goodwill, I’m just here to provide you two with some moral support is all!” Gold Ship stuck her tongue out playfully, all while firing finger guns at Haru.

“Right…” Rice trailed off, not believing the silver-haired girl for a second.

“Are you here to train for the Harmony Relay as well, Gold Ship-chan?” Haru piped up hopefully.

“Huh? Oh yeah, my partner’s McQueen, though. So I’m kinda here to get away from her uptightness for a bit.” Gold Ship leaned forward conspiratorially, lowering her voice as if McQueen might materialise out of thin air. “All ‘proper form this, steady pace that’. She’s a total buzzkill, you know?”

Rice exchanged a wary glance with Haru, which went completely unreciprocated. “… Well, since you’re here. Do you… have any advice for the race?”

“Ohoho, advice, you say?” Gold Ship raised an eyebrow, barely hiding the excitement building on her features. “Oh, I have advice. The best advice, in fact. Step one: don’t trip. Step two: if you do trip, make it look intentional. Roll, tumble, pose at the end, or try to laugh it off. The crowd eats that stuff up!”

Haru clasped her hands together. “Ooooh! Like turning mistakes into performances! That’s genius!”

Rice Shower twiddled her fingers, that information wasn’t going to help them win the race, though…

“If that doesn’t work, then resort to plan B: you can do that thing that Nice Nature always does where she scares the competition.” Gold Ship tapped her chin, pretending to ponder. “Hmmm, wonder what she says to unnerve the other runners, though. Maybe you guys could murmur something mystifying like ‘your clothes will come undone if you keep racing’. I think that’ll mess them up pretty badly.” 

“I like it!” Haru chirped. “Rice-chan, we could totally psyche them out together! We should start practicing our glares soon!”

“Um… I don’t think we’d be a scary pair even if we tried to act intimidating." Rice’s voice tapered away. “And, we don’t really want to be known as two creepy, threatening weirdos, d-do we?” Rice chewed her lip raw, eyes pinned to the dirt.

“Ah, picky, picky.” Gold Ship huffed with an air of faux-mockery, “Alright, well, my final and most important piece of advice to you two: if all else fails and you’re leagues behind, just scream ‘McQueen’ as loud as you can while mimicking my voice. She’ll panic, trip over her own legs and cause an entire group to tumble, and you’ll have a free shot at victory - It doesn’t get easier than that!” The silver-haired uma bowed, but before she could receive her resounding applause, a figure loomed behind her.

“Gold Ship.”

The voice was sharp and frosty enough to cut through the morning air. Sure enough, Mejiro McQueen was striding across the track, her eyes narrowing with a dangerous glint behind them.

“I leave you alone for five minutes to get a drink of water, and you’re already harassing another group.”

“Harassing?! Moi?” Gold Ship sucked in a breath, clutching her chest like she’d been shot. “I was bestowing extremely valuable, race-winning wisdom upon them!”

“Right, wisdom,” McQueen repeated flatly, crossing her arms. She glanced at Rice and Haru, who both stood stiffly, still tied together by the ankle. “…You didn’t actually listen to her, did you? Nearly half of what comes out of her mouth is not worth listening to.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know at least a third of my words have meaning behind them!” Gold Ship pouted, to everyone’s confusion.

“You… do know that a third is less than half, right?” McQueen stared at Gold Ship in exasperation and disbelief.

“Of course we listened to her advice!” Haru hummed joyously, both hands on her hips. “Gold Ship-chan’s advice was super helpful! We just have to do sick tricks and whisper hateful things at people to scare them away!”

McQueen closed her eyes for a long moment, head shaking in disapproval as a parent would to an unruly child. “…I see.” Then, with a sigh that carried the weight of worlds, she pinched Gold Ship’s ear and tugged her off the bleachers.

“Gah! Ow ow ow! McQueen, not the ear, it’ll come off! And I need that for balance!” Gold Ship yelped, flailing as she was dragged away. “D-Don’t worry, you two, you’ll thank me when you’re standing on centre stage!”

Rice watched the pair retreat, the sound of Gold Ship’s complaints fading into the distance. Haru waved energetically after them. 

“… You’re not seriously planning to follow her advice, are you?” Rice asked, deadpan.

Haru’s eyes sparkled mischievously. “Why not? If we can’t win with speed, maybe we can woo the audience over with style!”

Her friend was… quite desperate to win, wasn’t she?

“Let’s just stick to normal running for now… they might consider something like that to be cheating.”

“Mmmkay…” Haru whined, sounding not entirely convinced, “Let’s go for another round then, Rice-chan!” She turned her right leg a tad too quickly, forgetting she was still bound and nearly twisting her ankle with a jolt of pain.

“Oh, goodness, Urara-chan, a-are you okay?”

“I-I’m fine…”

Rice stifled a groan, pressing her mud-streaked palm against her face before realising that that was a bad decision and flinching away. She didn’t know if it was her bad luck or divine intervention, but today had been a very, very long day - She just hoped their future training sessions wouldn't all end like this.

If miracles really did happen, she prayed this one would at least wait until after she found a way to walk without falling flat on her face.

Chapter Text

“Alright, Rice-chan, I’ve got a good feeling - today’s the day we finally get it right!”

The cafeteria buzzed with the usual morning chatter, clatter of trays, and the scent of miso soup drifting in the air. Haru charged ahead, balancing her plate piled with rice, grilled fish, and roasted carrots, “C’mon, Rice-chan, grab something good. We’ve got a big day ahead of us!”

“C-Coming, Urara-chan…” Rice trailed behind with her own tray, her breakfast modest: a bowl of rice and a bit of soup.

“You know, I looked this up last night, champions always eat a strong breakfast! It helps with keeping them energetic for the day ahead.” Haru said between mouthfuls of rice and fish, “So that applies to us, too. We have to fuel up for a big victory today!”

Rice stirred her soup quietly, watching the steam curl. She had half a mind to tell her about the reason why it had been over a week and they were still struggling to perform consistently together - it was her bad luck, plain and simple. But Haru seemed to be in such a good mood, Rice couldn’t bring herself to shower her with the unfortunate news.

“Oh right, and some good sleep, too!” Haru tapped her chopsticks together, before grabbing another piece of roasted carrot. “How’d you sleep last night?”

“It was… fine, I think.” Rice Shower murmured, hoping Haru wouldn’t notice the obvious bags under her eyes.

“Are you sure? You don’t look… too great.”

Sighing, Rice Shower gave up on maintaining her facade, “It wasn’t great… I kept hearing footsteps in the hallway.”

“Footsteps? Maybe it was Agnes Tachyon working on another late night experiment again.” Haru hummed, wiping away a grain of rice stuck to her chin. “Have you tried using earplugs?”

“Yes, but they make my ears uncomfortable,” Rice Shower admitted, “Did you sleep well, Urara-chan?”

“Like a log!” The pink-haired Uma musume beamed, before noticing Rice Shower’s dour expression. “Well, not always, of course. Sometimes I’m too caught up thinking about races, so I stay up all night imagining how I’ll be running the next day. Once I was so tired I fell asleep while standing in the starting gate, talk about bad luck!” She grinned, not an ounce of annoyance in her tone or features.

“You’re… not upset about that?”

“... Why would I be? I mean, sure, everyone does better when they’re well-rested. But we can’t always control how well we sleep. You toss and turn, right? And then other nights you crash in two seconds. Sometimes it just feels like plain luck.” She slowed down for a second, scooping another mouthful of rice, “So, instead, let’s just focus on what you can do, like eating a good breakfast…” She pointed her chopsticks at Rice’s bowl with a playful grin. “And showing up to training ready to learn.”

“Yes, I suppose… that’s one way to think about it…” Rice Shower hummed, the heaviness in her chest loosening just a little.

“Speaking of which, are you sure you’re just gonna eat that little?” Haru gestured at Rice Shower’s nearly empty bowl, “I mean, the last time we went out for desserts together at that all-you-can-eat buffet, you had so much food that they nearly banned us for life!”

“I-” Rice Shower stared at her pitiful, feeble tray. Haru wasn’t wrong, this was far below what she usually ate. Before she could make a decision, her stomach took over the reins and grumbled loudly, causing her to blush and Haru to stifle a chuckle across the table. “I see your point…”

And that was how her breakfast then expanded to include three extra bread rolls, an entire container of soup, a large hamburg carrot steak, and a whole tub of custard.

The late-afternoon air shimmered with heat, but Haru insisted they keep running laps before the sun set. The field had been marked out with cones, their makeshift circuit for practicing rhythm.

Rice knew the drill. She knew every mark, every breath pattern, every cue Haru had patiently gone over with her again and again. It sounded so simple when Haru said it. But in practice…

Her hooves struck the dirt in uneven beats, her breaths sharp and shallow. She could hear Haru beside her, making strides a little too wide for her to keep up. The point was to sync, to become one with the rhythm.

“Inside leg, let’s try to shorten our pacing-” Haru called out, trying to guide her.

Rice grit her teeth, they were so close, they had just passed the third corner of the course. She couldn’t mess this up for her friend. She shortened, tried to match, but the adjustment left her off-balance. Haru tried to surge forward to correct their pattern, but ended up bumping Rice’s shoulder in the process, worsening their already-failing attempts to find balance.

Rice felt something icy grip her heart, she didn’t fall, but she may as well have. Their rhythm shattered, the ground a blur beneath her, and she gasped raggedly as Haru staggered beside her.

“W-We’re almost there…!” Haru managed weakly, but even she knew the outcome already. Their strides were either too long, or too short, but never just right. They had barely made the turn in one piece, but instinctively Rice already knew this would add to their ever-growing list of failed attempts.

Right before the finish line, Rice felt her composure slip and the two of them came falling down, down, down.

Dirt and turf came up against her arms, as well as a shout from her partner, who untied the knot between their ankles.

Rice didn’t move, she laid there, wallowing in the soil, wishing it would just swallow her up and be done with it.

“R-Rice-chan?” Haru queried, standing close enough to offer support without crowding her. She was waiting for her to get up, but she didn’t. “It’s fine if we didn’t make it on this attempt,” The pink-haired Uma musume said gently. “We just need more time.”

“Time?” Rice’s voice cracked in the middle, bitter and breathless. “I-It’s been a week…” A whole week of training, and they were still crashing into each other like foals learning to walk.

“I mean, a week isn’t that long. But hey, look on the bright side: we stayed in step for longer this time, didn’t we? The third corner wasn’t nearly as messy as before. If we just keep smoothing out the rough spots, we’ll be fine!”

Haru winced as she rubbed at her ankle, then forced another little laugh. “Oof, yeah, I think these need a break. Let’s call it for today. Tomorrow we’ll get even further, I just know it!” Her cheerful voice grew fainter as she walked away, humming some tune under her breath.

Practice should have helped make subsequent attempts easier, but to Rice it only highlighted the cracks. The field was busier than usual, a scattering of pairs running drills. Near the far lane, Special Week and Silence Suzuka were pacing in perfect rhythm, strides clean, shoulders even. Each time one of them pulled, the other flowed smoothly with it, like they’d been partnered their whole lives - Their synchrony was uncanny.

“Whoa, look at them go!” An Umamusume next to Rice pointed out, applauding as the pair crossed the finish line flawlessly.

“They’ll win for sure!” Another student whooped.

Rice felt her lip quiver, a chill running down her spine. Every step she took with Haru felt like walking a tightrope. It had been a full week and they were still tripping over each other, literally.

She tried to push her legs forward again, but suddenly they felt heavy, like they’d sunk into wet cement that was rapidly hardening. The cheers for Special Week and Silence Suzuka echoed louder in her ears than Haru’s encouragement ever did.

As Haru began to wander off into the distance, Rice Shower finally pulled her sharking form up, wiping the stinging wetness from her cheeks. Improving? Haru had to see how bad she was… she had to. And yet, she chose to smile through it, to carry the weight without complaint. She was so, so grateful Haru didn’t witness her tears - that sweet pea didn’t need more problems on her plate because of her.

And Rice… Rice was the opposite. She was the one pulling her friend into the rain, into the mud, into the storm. Every time… it was because of her. Their stumbles, their missteps, their lack of timing - always because of her bad luck.

Rice bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw something salty and metallic, as though pain could dam the unhealthy thoughts plaguing her mind. But they kept coming, jagged and raw. They weren’t practicing, practice makes perfect, it wasn’t supposed to be an endless cycle of just repeating and failing the same track over and over again.

Her shoulder tremoured at her conclusion: she was letting her partner down.

She and her bad luck would hang over Haru like a dark cloud, raining on the cheery girl’s parade wherever they went.

Her hands clenched against the dirt, trembling. She wanted to tell her, she fought the urge to blurt it out that she shouldn’t have to put up with her any longer. The words bubbled up to the back of her throat, acidic and heavy, begging to spill.

But if she said it now, if she showed her how dark and twisted her thoughts really were, Haru’s smile would vanish. She would take it as pity at best, and maybe disgust at worst. And Rice couldn’t bear to see that expression break.

So she’d have to cut off from her altogether.

She found herself moving, feet taking her someplace out of view with the desperate instinct of a wounded animal seeking cover. She wanted to go somewhere where the shadows could swallow her whole before her emotions made her break down further on the open fields.

The dimness wrapped around her, smelling of hay and dust and oil. Rice pressed her back against the wall and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to will her pulse to slow, but the words rattled loudly in her own head: Curse. Monster. Assassin. Scourge. Blight.

The field behind the dorms was quiet except for the faint squeak of the school gates closing.

Haru Urara sat cross-legged in the grass, rubbing at her sore ankle and catching her breath. Maybe it was sort of her fault. She did have a couple of overzealous strides that tripped them up a few times, or maybe a few dozen times. She lost count, she just hoped there were no hard feelings between her and Rice for messing up their unity so many times…

Alright, so maybe the past few sessions could have gone better. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in Rice, she was an excellent runner who was leagues above her. Honestly, maybe Urara was the problem here, she laughed to herself half-heartedly. 

The truth was, the spark she’d had back when they’d first partnered together had waned a little. The excitement of maybe, maybe getting her first win had dulled as they continued to struggle.

But whatever, it didn’t really matter to Haru, honestly. What was one more loss to her? She’d move on without thinking much of it, like with every other race. She’d bounce back, slap on her trademark sunny smile, and promise making first place again. It was the only reason why she was still sunshine and rainbows even after her lopsided track record. After all, losing didn’t sting as much when you stopped expecting anything different.

Still… maybe that was part of the problem, wasn’t it?

She’d been running for so long without really thinking about why. Even when she tried to come up with new strategies, her brain always just circled back to one thing: go fast. Faster than everyone else. That was all she knew. But no matter how hard she pushed, it never seemed to be enough. She internally noted that it definitely would have paid off if she had more timing and strategy to know when to go for openings and when to refrain from wasting stamina trying to push past a pack grouped too tightly to weave through. But it was so complicated… her balance would be off, her stamina would run out, and, even if she was in the lead, the pack would close in around her before she knew it.

If only she could figure out when to hold back instead of wasting energy trying to squeeze through every tight space. If only she could match Rice’s rhythm instead of overlapping with it into an incoherent cacophony… But that kind of timing and patience felt so complicated. It was way easier to just keep charging forward and hope for the best.

She flopped backwards into the grass with a groan, throwing her arms wide. A cloud drifted lazily across the sky, shaped vaguely like a rice ball. She liked clouds, they didn’t have to win or lose, they could just float on by without any responsibilities, always surrounded by the endless sky and constant sun.

She wished she could be as boundlessly optimistic and carefree as a sunny cloud - all happiness and nothing else. She could live like that… Maybe she already did.

Her stomach growled. “…Great. Now I want dinner.” Ugh, the only thing all this thinking was doing was making her seriously hungry!

Watching the setting sun paint wide arcs of orange as it faded past the buildings, she thought about grabbing Rice and heading to dinner with her. Haru turned her head to the right, aside from a couple of workers paving out the track, there was no one else. To the left, she saw a group of students huddled up with their eyes glued to their screens. However, none of them were the Uma musume Haru was currently looking for… So where had she gone? She didn’t… leave her because of her ineptitude, d-did she?

Haru’s throat bobbed as she swallowed hard, feeling something thrum in her ears.

With a startling realisation, Haru launched herself straight up from the ground like a rocket, wincing at her ankle but ignoring it. “R-Rice-chan?” She called out frantically, heart pounding and praying to the Three Goddesses she didn’t abandon her. “Rice-chan, where are you?! C’mon, we have to go eat, otherwise all the good dishes will be gone!” Her voice came out shriller than intended, her pulse spiking as though the other girl might vanish for good if she didn’t find her this instant.

The silence stretched unbearably, broken only by her own panting breaths. Thankfully, right as she was on the far side of the field, her ears twitched. The voice was so soft she almost missed it, but behind the old storage shed, there was a muffled, wet sniffle. Haru spun around to see Rice Shower wedged behind a wall, her knees pulled up to her chest.

“Oh, phew! There you are, Rice-chan…!” Haru hurried over, relief tumbling out of her in a choked giggle. “I thought you- I mean, I was worried that you… um… left me.”

Haru thought she saw Rice Shower’s eyes widen with a burst of anxiety, but the other girl ducked her head quickly, burying it in her sleeves. “N-No, I was just… I didn’t want to be in the way.” The sleeves didn’t do much to hide the truth: her lashes were clumped with tears, and her eyes were pink and swollen. A hiccup betrayed her as she pressed her palms hard against her face, as if she could block out the world.

“Rice-chan, wh-why are you crying? If we have an issue, we can talk it out, you don’t have to bottle it all up inside you, you know?” She reached out with a tentative hand, gently brushing her fingertips against Rice’s sleeve. “Please don’t hide from me…” Oh Goddesses, was her friend so upset because of her inadequacy?

Rice shuddered under the touch, fingers tightening where they clenched into her uniform. She hiccupped again, and then she spilled out in halting fragments. “I-I think today’s training has just shown that if you keep pairing with me, we’ll keep losing, and never be in sync. I…” Her voice cracked on the first word, and she swallowed hard, trying again. “I’m-” She broke off, shaking her head. The words were there, but they refused to come out. “Everyone says I bring bad luck wherever I go, and I don’t… want that for you, too. I don’t want my bad luck to drag you down during the race.”

Haru felt her stomach tighten, like a hot ball of lead just dropped inside. For a moment, her instinct was to laugh it off like she always did. Laughter was the best medicine, after all, especially after a loss… It helped ease the struggles of everyone else around her as well. She knew that better than probably anyone on the campus.

Her friends wouldn't have to be so concerned about her when they saw her beaming through loss after loss, so it was better for everyone that she continued to show off her pearly whites even when she only ‘won’ fifth place out of five racers… Even if… somewhere deep down in her heart of hearts she knew it was all artificial.

But Rice’s tone wasn’t defensive or stubborn. It was resigned - as if it was someone repeating an old fact they had already come to terms with a long time ago. And if Haru got this wrong - if she said the wrong thing - Rice might shut that door forever.

“You know…” Haru began, sinking down on one leg to prop herself up against the shed’s walls next to Rice Shower, “I’ve lost more times than I’ve won… Actually, forget that, I don’t think I’ve ever won any real races.” She laughed at her own admission, then shrugged without a care. “Some of them were because I didn’t train hard enough, some of them were because of sheer misfortune. But… I don’t mind, really! I had fun, so that’s… that’s really all that matters, heh.”

She paused for a few moments, eyeing Rice Shower, whose gaze lingered expectantly. Her previous act of avoiding eye contact all but forgotten as she looked on fervently, eager to hear the rest of what she had to say. “I still like racing. Even though I’ve lost over a hundred races, that’s never going to stop me. Even if people thought I’m silly for still trying despite my streak of never winning, I love racing too much to give up on it. So I think a little bad luck won’t be enough to stop me in the slightest.”

“But-! Wh-What if my curse makes you hate racing? I might cause your injury to get worse, or humiliate you in public, or- or…!” Haru noted the way her shoulders curled inward, as though she wanted to make herself small enough to vanish.

“Oh, come on, Rice! My ankle’s barely hurting anymore, and that had nothing to do with you, I’m just not used to making quick turns on turf tracks, that’s all.” Haru leaned forward, grinning. “You think bad luck is scary? I eat bad luck for breakfast. Well, not literally, since my breakfast is usually ryegrass because apparently some people sent me two and a half tonnes of that stuff, but you get what I mean, right?”

Even from her skewed view on the side, Haru saw the way the corners of Rice’s mouth tugged upward despite her dreary expression, her head bobbing gently.

“So, you’re not afraid of the rumours?”

“Rice-chan, rumours are just what they are: something made up by people. They love to explain things in silly ways, because it’s easier than coming to terms with bad days and hard luck and not preparing for the race enough.”

“You don’t believe it?”

“Nope!” Haru’s answer came with an energetic shake of her head. “If you really were cursed, it probably would’ve passed on to me by now. And honestly, if I was cursed, I think I’d like it.”

That pulled a confused little expression from Rice Shower. “... Why would you like being cursed?”

“Because then we’d be matching! Two underdogs, two unlucky girls! Statistically people tend to like underdogs, right? We’ll be the crowd’s favourites! Go us!” She held out two fingers in the shape of a ‘V’. Registering how goofy her words were, Haru couldn’t help but break out in a soft chortle, stopping suddenly when she realised Rice’s ringing chuckles had joined her own.

“W-Woah, did you just laugh, Rice-chan?” Haru froze, eyes wide with wonder, as if she was witnessing history being made.

Blushing, Rice Shower gasped and opened her mouth to retort, “Um… I didn’t mean to be so loud, I-”

“Well, I liked it.” Haru responded with a chortle of her own, “It sounded so nice, your laugh reminds me of those wind chimes people hang under their eaves!”

She saw the redness deepen on Rice Shower’s cheeks and let out another girly giggle of her own. “So whaddaya say, Rice-chan? Are you up to train with me again tomorrow?”

The question hung in the golden dusk. But for the first time in a long while, her partner’s shoulders loosened. There was a faint spark of fiery blue - the very same one that she saw when Rice overtook Bourbon all those months ago - and she answered with zero hesitation.

Haru Urara sat hunched over her desk, lit by only a fading yellow light. A couple of the academy library’s books were strewn about the surface: training manuals, running techniques, even a worn-out volume on stride mechanics. Her own notebook was no less messy, having been scrawled with blurry writings and rough sketches of different posture diagrams.

“Ohohohoh! Studying hard, are we?”

Haru nearly fell out of her chair as King Halo swept into the room, yet another stack of books, this time on air resistance. Her roommate’s brown hair gleamed under the yellow light, not a single strand out of place despite the fact she had just come back after an evening run. King Halo cast a single glance at the chaos of Haru’s desk and perfectly arched an eyebrow.

“Ah, King-chan! Y-Yeah, I’m working my tail off for the race coming soon.” Haru responded, nose still buried in the spine of another book.

“As any first-rate Umamusume should!” She set the new books on one of the few mostly untouched sections of the desk, “Here are the ones you asked for. Advanced pacing strategies, airflow mechanics, and… ah, this one is about psychological conditioning.”

“Thanks, King-chan.” Haru chirped, tugging one of the books closer and squinting at the dense diagrams.

As pink-haired umamusume resumed her studies, King Halo sat regally by her bed. 

“Urara-chan, I’ve never seen you this serious about a race before.”

Haru paused mid-page, “Really? You haven’t?”

“Pardon my wording, but you usually act as though victory is a lark, something to chase with a smile and forget the moment the race ends.” King’s tone was calm, not unkind, but precise, like a critique delivered in fencing class. “However, now you’ve stacked enough books to rival my own collection. And you’re still awake, squinting over all sorts of difficult figures.”

Haru puffed out her cheeks. “Hey, that doesn’t mean I can’t decipher them! … Mostly.” She scratched the back of her head, then glanced at her notebook, which currently had ‘DON’T TRIP!!!’ scrawled five times across a corner in big block letters.

“Urara-chan, I never said that!” King exclaimed, though her lips twitched slightly, hinting at the amusement in her tone, “I am curious, though. What changed?”

For a moment, Haru twirled her pencil, tapping it against the desk. She wanted to say because I want to win, but that wasn’t the whole truth anymore, was it? A week ago when she first partnered up with Rice, she had told herself she wanted to win, and she meant it, in her own way. Winning sounded like a cool personal fantasy - a world of shiny medals and loud cheers. It wasn’t like she didn’t have her own fair share of fans, but winning would bring about a kind of spotlight she’d never had.

But if she was honest with herself… it had always been a little bit of a game. Something fun to chase with a grin, even if she tripped over her own legs, it was more of a whimsical wish in the moment than anything else - She gave it her all in the moment but shrugged off setbacks when the adrenaline faded.

But today, when she saw Rice Shower’s dejected stance, that hit different. Winning didn’t look like a game to Rice, it was something far more serious… it was something worth dedicating, chasing, and hurting yourself over.

She slumped against her chair, puffing a little sigh. It wasn’t that she hadn’t wanted to win before. She had. But now, it wasn’t just a wish. It was a promise. A reason to actually give a damn, to dig her feet into the dirt and push back harder

She felt the weight of a friend’s hope… and the strange, stubborn joy of wanting to convey it, to carry it to the end - It was a cause worth fighting for.

“Hmmm… I guess… I just don’t wanna let someone down. Not this time.”

King Halo studied her carefully, the dorm light reflecting in her clear eyes. After a beat, King’s expression shifted into something almost motherly. “Then you are finally beginning to understand what it means to race as more than yourself,” King said gently. “It seems Rice Shower has been a good influence.”

“Y-Yeah!” Haru perked up again, bobbing her head, her grin returning in full force. “For her sake, I’m gonna give it everything I’ve got. Even if we fall and hurt ourselves a hundred times over, we’re going to win!”

King chuckled softly at the image, covering her mouth with her hand. “Very well. Then let me assist you with some pointers on balance.” She plucked and opened up a binder from her bag. “I’ve shortened and summarised most of the notes from the air resistance section into one coherent stash, this should be more efficient than pouring over each book individually. Shall we start going over it?”

“Are you… offering to help me train, King-chan?”

“Of course, any first-class Umamusume should be able to run to her full potential, even while her legs are tied!” King Halo winked, voice losing its haughty edge that was now replaced with a nurturing yet proud undertone.

Haru’s chest swelled as warmth pricked her eyes. It wasn’t often she felt this serious, and rarer still that someone like King Halo would acknowledge it.

She looked back down at her messy notes, clutching her pencil with new determination. She wasn’t just going to let this race pass by like she had with so many before her now that Rice-chan was counting on her.

Haru Urara was going to do this. Not just for fun, but for her friend. Haru Urara wanted to win.

Chapter Text

The buzz of voices carried all the way down the track, the hum of excitement swelled well beyond the seats and emanated across the field.

For Rice, it was a little suffocating. All of these expectations that she and Haru would have to live up to…

A few paces beside her, Haru Urara was bouncing on balls of her heels to shake the nerves out. “Rice-chan! Can you believe it? We’re actually here! It’s time for the big race!”

Rice Shower stood stiffly at her side, arms folded, the corners of her mouth drawn tight. Her ears twitched at the sound of the crowd, then pinned flat as if the noise itself pressed against her. “Y-Yes…” Her tone was even, but her grip on her sleeves revealed her true feelings.

“Oi, oi, look who it is~!” A sing-song voice broke in. Haru turned, startled, only to find Gold Ship draping herself dramatically over Rice’s shoulders like a heavy scarf. “The dark horse and the eternal underdog! What a pair.”

“G-Gold Ship-san?!” Rice squeaked, flailing slightly under the taller girl’s weight.

“Yup, that’s me!” Gold Ship gave a cheshire grin, “So how’s the training gone? Any of my tips help you two prep for the big day?”

“Ummm…” Before Haru could respond, Gold Ship side-eyed Rice Shower’s frozen expression, before changing her tone to something a little more mischievous.

“Actually, don’t bother answering, we all know you guys aren’t putting up much of a fight anyways~” Gold Ship stuck her tongue out.

Haru puffed up her cheeks. “That’s not funny! Rice-chan and I have been training super hard, we’re gonna do our best out there, no tripping allowed!”

“Ohhh, look at you, little Miss Sunshine, getting all fiery and feisty! Careful, if you believe in her too loudly, you’ll get cursed by her, y’know~”

Rice’s eyes widened at that, but Haru quickly shook her head, squeezing her friend’s hand tighter. “No way. I don’t believe in curses, I believe in Rice-chan.”

Upon hearing her partner’s words, Rice’s normally-timid expression pressed into a thin yet determined line. Something iron willed her to push forwards. “Yes… Haru and I may not be the most cooperative pair, but there’s no way we’re going to lose without giving it our all. Let’s have a fruitful race, Gold Ship!”

The silver-haired student tilted her head, studying them with a glint of mischief that hid something softer underneath. For a moment an almost-earnest smile crept onto her lips, before she replaced it with an exaggerated yawn and began marching off. “Well, I’ll let you lovebirds hype each other up. Make it a worthwhile battle, eh?”

Haru puffed up again at the tease, but before she could argue, Gold Ship had already bounded away, whistling.

Left in the wake of her chaos, Haru glanced back at Rice, who still seemed a little dazed that she had been so loud and bold. “Don’t listen to her. I know you’re gonna shine out there!”

Rice swallowed, then bobbed her head again, adjusting her hat. “Even if we don’t win, let’s give the audience a race they’ll remember forever.”

Haru beamed with excitement, “That’s what I’m talking about!” She snapped on her magenta gloves and tightened the knot between their legs.

She stood stock still, feeling the rope tethering them together. It was all deep breaths, full concentration. Everyone was waiting for that distinct sound…

The sound of the starting bell. And then the whole world rushed forward.

The ground thundered with hooves, the wind whistled in their ears. Haru dashed ahead with boundless energy, not wanting to break rhythm, Rice widened her strides. It was rough, but they were just barely in sync, almost like the weeks of fumbling practice had finally clicked.

To be fair, the other groups weren’t exactly passing with flying colours. Vodka and Daiwa Scarlet immediately keeled over to their left when they had tried to each go separate directions while forgetting they were still bound by the leg.

“And they’re off!” The announcer’s voice boomed from the speakers. “What a lively start! But will these unconventional pairs be able to hold their rhythm through the corners? Keep your eyes peeled, folks!”

“First corner…!” Haru turned to her, “We’ve got this!”

The crowd roared. Haru, Rice and the other racers’ shadows stretched long and parallel across the sunlit track. Haru’s optimism bled into her, warming the nervous bundle she carried in her heart. The pair made it through the first quarter of the track without much hassle, even passing two teams along the way.

In front of them were Mejiro McQueen and Gold Ship, El Condor Pasa and Grass Wonder, and Special Week and Silence Suzuka. Just a little more and they could break into the top three!

Gold Ship, who had eyeballed them coming up behind her, made a slight misstep at that moment. “Whoops, silly me!” She giggled, stumbling McQueen and presenting the fourth placers a gap to squeeze through.

Was it an accident, or on purpose, Rice Shower couldn’t tell. Knowing Gold Ship, anything was possible. But she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth now of all times, “Let’s overtake them!” Rice Shower called out Haru Urara, who hastened her own pace as they sprinted past Mejiro McQueen and Gold Ship.

As the wind carried through her hair and ruffled her dress, Rice Shower gave in to the freeing instinct to run.

For a brief, flickering instant, all the doom and gloom she had carried: her doubts, her fears, the gnawing suspicion that her presence was cursing her friends - all gone, lost in the sheer, unadulterated pleasure that was feeling the world turn to a blur beside you. She hadn’t felt this alive since the Kikuka Sho!

Only this time, she would have a friend to share that podium with.

El Condor Pasa and Grass Wonder loomed ahead, their forms sharp against the track. Normally the sight of their backs would have weighed Rice down, reminding her of how far she had left to go. But right now, her legs felt like springs, her chest like a bell ringing with each inhale… The distance didn’t look so impossible anymore.

“Rice-chan!” Haru’s voice, high and eager, asserted to her partner, “Let’s go catch them too!”

In the heat of the moment, Rice Shower didn’t even need to think. Her old reflexes of a shrinking violet were gone. Instead, she felt the words leave her mouth before she realised she was saying them:

“Yes! We can do it!”

The phrase was ragged, half-swallowed by the air brushing against her face, but it was real. She angled her stance and pushed harder. For the first time that week, she wasn’t running away from her bad luck or chasing some unreachable dream. She was simply sprinting with everything she had.

The distance between them, El Condor Pasa and Grass Wonder’s shadows began to narrow.

Now it was only Silence Suzuka and Special Week standing in their path to glory.

“Just one more group, let’s keep pushing!” Rice Shower urged Haru, who made a half-nod in response.

But right as they managed to cross the third corner, Rice noticed something was off. She was speeding ahead, while Haru was struggling to keep up. On the curve, Haru winced, her right leg limped ever so slightly. She didn’t fully stop, but they had lost their flow.

“Y-Your ankle…?” The gap between them and the first placers was widening by the second. At this rate, El Condor Pasa and Grass Wonder would probably catch up as well.

“I’m fine! W-We can’t let them catch up!” Haru Urara shouted through narrowed eyes and gritted teeth.

Rice felt the excitement drain from her body at the speed of light, w-was it her curse acting up again? She could already feel the crowd’s eyes drilling into her back, she could hear their whispers about how Rice Shower ruined things again… 

Haru’s stumbled form worsened as they passed the turn, her stride crumpling until the rope jerked against Rice’s leg. For one heart-stopping instant, Rice thought they’d fall, and the whole race would end here - with them left in the dust.

They would never catch the front runners again. The gap was growing too large, that misstep was too costly.

But then, through the roar of the crowd, she remembered that shed, Haru’s words were trembling but unbroken: 'Even though I’ve lost over a hundred races, I love racing too much to give up on it’.

If Haru could rise again after a hundred defeats, how could she let herself crumble now?

“No, no, no! Don’t stop now, argh!” Haru’s yell cut sharp through the panic, her face alive with panic and distress, “We can still do this! C’mon!” Her hands balled into fists.

Her voice made Rice’s throat tighten. Even in the direst of situations, when she was dead last, Haru never gave up, not once, not ever. Rice let out a heavy exhale as they rounded the final stretch, Haru’s arm brushing hers. But the victors were already decided.

Haru Urara was floating… buoyed by an incomprehensible feeling, watching the racecourse from afar, as if she herself had become a member of the crowd.

She smacked her lips, but the only thing she tasted was the dryness of the dust of the finish line - a bitter reminder that they had not come first place.

No, they’d placed third.

Not last, but not winners either - Somewhere in that no-man’s-land of almost making it, but falling just short before glory.

They were amazing, the crowd was cheering the entire time they’d been running. She and Rice had made it so far, further than anyone probably expected. They’d tried so hard to pass Special Week and Silence Suzuka, but in the end they just couldn't reach them.

Her mind drifted to the stack of books King Halo had brought, the two of them spent so much time pouring over the pages, King-chan spent so much of her precious time teaching her the details of air resistance and stride efficiency. All the late-night training, the studying, the long hours King-chan spent helping her with her form…

It was so much fun, she told herself, like she always did. This was probably the most amount of enjoyment she had derived from racing in a long time. Even if she was sent back in time, she’d still have chosen to run with Rice, the race was that much fun… It was alright, it was fun…

And yet… why did it still… hurt?

“I said I’d run for her…” She muttered under her breath, “So why do I still feel like this?”

The truth was, she wanted to win for Rice, yes, but also for herself. Goddesses, she was still so selfish. All that talk about ‘running for Rice,’ and yet she was still complaining about why she couldn’t get first.

But it was just the truth: she cared about the race enough to want to win. That tiny, traitorous part of her heart wouldn’t stop whispering to her, it told her that she was so close, but not there. The feeling made her throat clog up with a cloying stickiness, wells of heat building up behind her eyes. Her teeth grit fiercely with each other as she felt fire ravage through her skin.

Everyone always said Haru Urara was unstoppable, that no matter how many times she fell, she always got back up.

She rubbed her sleeve across her eyes, pretending it was just sweat. She’d just have to get back up from this folly as well, no big deal…

There were cheers, and applause. At first Rice Shower assumed they would not be for them. The other two groups, who placed first and second, were now being draped in flowers and ribbons.

Her heart had already braced her for the worst: People whispering and booing her off the track for intervening with the event. She was a disgrace to the academy and everything it stood for, and even in a joke race she was better off not joining at all. These thoughts caused a violent shudder to spark down her spine, but what turned fear into true horror was the addition of Haru. Rice might have deserved to be called such things, but poor, sweet little Haru did not. She shouldn’t be stuck here getting swarmed with the audience’s barbed words because of her.

But then, the announcer spoke, “And give it up for the third placers: Rice Shower and Haru Urara!”

For a second, Rice Shower’s legs locked beneath her. Surely there had been some mistake, right? The announcer’s words would be met with hesitation, a ripple of confusion, a smattering of reluctant applause at best if she was lucky.

The tidal wave of acclamation that followed felt deafening, the audience, they were clapping… for Rice Shower. For the girl who stole Bourbon’s victory and upset everyone, for the girl who was misfortune incarnate, for the girl whose very existence was a stain on Tracen academy’s unblemished records…

They were cheering for Haru, and for her.

Haru was smiling… Anyone could confirm that from a mile away with those pearly whites she was putting on open display. But Rice felt an impulse that she wasn’t quite… happy. It was quite difficult to tell from this angle, since the pink-haired uma musume had bent over, with her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. Before her ears flicked towards the sound of the announcement. “Rice-chan! W-We did it. We’re in third…” 

The announcer’s voice blared again, calling the winners to the podium. But neither of them moved. Her knees nearly buckled. Heat blurred her eyes until she could hardly see the ground in front of her.

“Hey,” Haru tugged on Rice’s sleeves, “You’re not crying, are you?”

Rice quickly wiped her face, heat rushing to her cheeks. “A-Am I dreaming…?” Her words trembling with disbelief.

“Far from it.” Haru stated calmly, face still plastered with a grin but her tone shared nearly none of the disbelief Rice was feeling. “We ran our all, and came third. W-We were so close to first…”

Before they could step off the track, a hand tapped Haru’s shoulder. El Condor Pasa and Grass Wonder were there, still flushed from their run.

“That was quite the charge you two made back there!” El Condor said with a hearty guffaw. “To pass us like that, it was muy valiente!”

Grass Wonder gave Rice a gentler nod. “Even though you didn’t keep up the full sprint, I think a lot of people needed to see that today. Well done.”

And then, from across the podium, Special Week waved so hard her arm looked ready to fly off. “Rice-chaaan, Urara-chaaaan! Congratulations!” Silence Suzuka only smiled, serene as ever, but it was enough.

Rice’s chest tightened, overwhelmed by how different this ending was from the one she’d braced herself for. Haru Urara gave a thin twitch of her lips, but didn’t say much either.

As the crowd slowly dispersed and the winners were ushered toward the platforms, Rice’s stomach growled, startling her.

“Oh, are you suddenly hungry now?”

“Well, I was too nervous to eat much in the past few days…” Rice Shower twiddled her fingers. “But now I think all that running burned through breakfast! How about you?”

Delicately, as if too much harshness would wake them from their bliss, Haru gestured Rice to the cafeteria, “Then let’s go get some food.” She stated, almost robotically.

The truth was simple: They hadn’t won, they hadn’t even come close, in fact. But somehow, despite everything, she wasn’t booed offstage.

Rice Shower watched Haru plop down her tray of food as she pulled up a seat. Normally by now she’d have launched straight into chatter about the cafeteria menu or how good the curry smelled, but this time, her hands fidgeted around her fork, twisting it back and forth instead of digging in.

“Urara-chan? You’re awfully quiet…”

Haru’s ears flicked, her huge eyes met Rice’s, but they didn’t have the usual shine. Instead, they were glossy, like her friend was watching someone else far off in the distance. “H-Have I? Guess I’m just a little tired, I’ve never ran so much in my entire life.” She tapped the spoon against the rim of her bowl, then let out a little sigh.

“Are you alright?”

“Oh, I’m fine, p-perfectly fine!” She gave Rice an awkward thumbs up, but the faint skip in her tone didn’t deceive Rice Shower. “I’m… Thanks, for… putting up with me.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Urara-chan…” Rice Shower stopped eating, “You were a delight to partner up with. You never once complained when I was gloomy, or when I thought of giving up. Even when I… disappeared for a while, you welcomed me back without anger. I don’t think many others would’ve had the patience for me.”

Haru’s fork clinked softly back to her tray. Her ears flattened, eyes lowering. “Y’know, Rice-chan… sometimes I get worried.” In a rather uncharacteristic display of hesitance, Haru Urara appeared as if she didn’t know what to say, stuttering all the while.

Rice Shower scratched her head with one hand, “You, worried? About what?” Her ears flicked in curiosity - What could optimism given physical form Haru Urara be worried about?

“About uh...” Haru stalled, tone shifting a tad more sheepish, “What happened a few days ago, when you went missing for a while.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to have worried you, I know i-it was foolish of me to run off without telling you…”

“N-No, Rice-chan, that’s not what I meant…”

The brown-haired Uma musume’s ears twitched, urging her friend to continue.

“I was… scared. What if I messed up so badly that day that you didn’t wanna train with me anymore? Urara thought maybe you left because she was… too hopeless…” Haru’s hands clutched against the hem of her skirt.

Rice leaned forward, almost bouncing up from where she sat. “Wh-What do you mean by ‘hopeless’? You’re not, Urara-chan, not to me, o-or anyone else!”

“And I guess I was. I really thought maybe today would finally be the day.” Ignoring her outcry, Haru sighed despondently.

“The day?”

“The day Urara finally won a race.” Her voice was soft, almost sheepish. “Even just once. After all the training we went through, I thought… maybe, with you, I could actually do it.”

The words made Rice’s chest ache. She had braced herself for mockery and boos, for an audience that would sneer her off the field. Instead, they had cheered. For the first time in what felt like forever, Rice had crossed a finish line without shame biting at her heels. It had been everything she could’ve hoped for. And yet… across the table, her friend was trembling.

“I guess no one’s really entitled to win anything though, I mean, I’ve lost like a hundred races already, so what’s one more, really?” Haru continued breathlessly, “It’s just… I dunno, all those other races, I lost them and that’s okay, but this one I really really wanted to stick it, but we didn’t. Or, I didn’t. And that just… doesn’t feel very good.”

She shifted uncomfortably, pushing her tray away. “Geez, is it me, or does it feel really stuffy in here?” Without waiting for an answer, Haru stood, her chair scraping against the floor. “I’m gonna get some air.”

Rice reached out, but Haru didn’t answer. She simply pushed past the cafeteria doors and walked away.

Rice blinked, halfway reaching out. “Urara-chan-” But Haru was already slipping through the cafeteria doors, leaving her half-eaten meal behind.

After only a second’s hesitation, Rice too abandoned her own tray and hurried after her friend. She finally came to a stop when she spotted Haru sitting on a grassy hill, eyes fixed on the wide, azure sky. Rice approached carefully and sat down beside her.

“Urara-chan… third place today was more than enough. People were clapping for us. For you. For once, I wasn’t… cursed.” Her throat tightened, but she pushed through. “I’ve never been so happy.” Rice approached Haru cautiously and sat down, the other uma musume didn’t react much to her presence.

“... I’m happy too, really! It’s the best I’ve ever done.” But her eyes dropped to her lap again, shoulders hunching. “I wish I was a cloud floating by, y’know? Clouds don’t worry about stuff like that.”

Rice gulped, oh, that definitely wasn’t the right thing to say! She’d never been good at comforting others. Especially not Haru Urara of all people, someone Rice always looked up to as unflappable. In spite of never winning a race, she had the guts and the iron will to keep standing up after every loss. But now, she was unravelling in front of her, and she didn’t know how to put her friend back together. What if what she said only made things worse?

But darn it all, the past few days have taught her that she couldn’t just sit around trying to shelter herself from everything that came her way. Even if she tried and failed, it was still better than failing to try. “Um… Cl-clouds fade, Urara-chan. They get blown and driven where the wind directs them. You’re not something that simply disappears, Haru Urara.”

For a moment, Haru’s mask cracked, the weary expression she had forced herself to don tilted downward at the edges. “I always thought if I cared too much about every loss, I’d drown in them. It’s easier to just coast around them, and not really acknowledge them for what they were worth.” She turned her eyes back to the sky, blinking quickly as her vision grew clouded. “Still… I wanted today to be different. I wanted it so bad.”

And then, Haru laughed, it was a sound that grated Rice’s ears. For it was too loud and far too quick - uncanny, even - with no hints of integrity behind each squeezed note; She was rushing to smother her tremors with another cheerful facade. A single tear slipped down her cheek before she scrubbed it away quickly, “But hey! What’s one more loss? Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine again, right? And rainbows, and flowers, maybe cherry blossoms, I-I like those…!” But her facade didn’t quite reach her eyes, they were still hazy and rimmed faintly pink - betraying the emotions she couldn’t quite cover up.

The silence stretched between them, heavy with things Haru usually shoved aside. Rice watched as Haru pressed her forehead against her knees, biting her lip until Rice saw red specks.

Rice’s chest ached at the sight, she laid a gentle hand around Haru’s side. “It’s okay to care, Urara-chan. You’ve been pretending not to feel the storms, but you’ve carried them all this time. And that’s why people cheer for you: even when losing hurts, you come back to show your love for racing.”

Haru hiccupped, the brittle sound caught in her throat as tears finally slipped down her cheeks. She buried her face against her knees, her whole body shaking. “I wish it didn’t hurt so much… I wish I wasn’t such a terrible runner…”

Rice shifted closer, allowing her friend to lean into her presence. “I know. But if it hurts, it means it mattered. I might not be able to sympathise with how it feels to never win, but this I… understand.”

“Urara is grateful to get third place, it’s the highest she has ever gotten. Urara is also overjoyed to have friends like you despite being so weak, but Rice-chan, you could be doing so much better if… Urara wasn’t holding you back.”

Rice Shower gasped, bringing her hands over her gaping mouth. “Urara-chan, that’s silly-talk!”

“... Is it?”

“Yes, that goes without saying!” Rice lightly shook Haru’s shoulder.

“We lost that race because of me, if my leg hadn’t…”

Rice didn’t answer right away. She only reached out, brushing a bit of grass from Haru’s sleeve. “S-So? Urara-chan, that doesn’t mean you’re any less of a living legend th-than the other students on campus.” Rice responded, a polite but firm tenseness in her assertion. “When I see you fall and stand up again, I think… maybe I can do that too...”

Haru stared at her, stunned into silence for a moment. Then her lips curled into a more familiar grin, faint but genuine. “But… how does that really change anything? I keep running, and running, and never really… improving.”

“You don’t have to measure it that way,” Rice’s hand lightly squeezed Haru, reaffirming her words, “Improvement isn’t only about running faster than before, sometimes improvement can be learning to keep going even when your legs feel like they’re made of lead, or when your mood is awful and your brain is wired to point out all the faults you’re making. Th-That’s what I think, anyway.” Rice Shower didn’t flinch. Instead, she let out a sharp puff of air, almost like a snort, and leaned forward with an uncharacteristic level of bravery until her nose nearly bumped Haru’s. “Even if it’s not on a scoreboard, everyone else sees it… I see it, too. That’s the kind of strength no one else here has. It’s why your fans still cheer for you, no matter your placement.”

Her gaze softened, though her grip on Haru’s arm stayed firm. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have had the courage to continue running in this race, and we wouldn’t even have competed to begin with. So don’t discount yourself, okay?”

“Rice-chan… you’re gonna make me cry harder.”

“... And that’s alright, Urara-chan, because it shows that you care.”

For once, Haru didn’t scramble to patch the cracks with falsified joy. She let the tears come, salty and unrelenting, spilling everything she’d tried so long to hide. And there, with Rice’s hand steady against her shoulder and the clouds drifting quietly above, she let herself break, feeling the frustration of repeated losses, the fear of letting people down, the exhaustion of pretending it didn’t matter.

After a long while of hearing sobbing and feeling wetness accumulate around her elbow, Rice noticed that the twitching eventually ceased, as did the waterworks. She raised a hand to help dry Haru’s dampened cheeks.

Haru cleared her throat, the words sinking in. She took a shaky breath, then another, her chest heaving.

“Every time I lose, I tell myself it’s okay,” Haru wailed, the breeze catching her words. “That I should just be happy to race. But… if I stop wanting to win, doesn’t that mean I’ve stopped caring?” She paused for a beat, “I still want to win. Even if it hurts and it’s selfish.”

“You know, you remind me of a story my parents used to read to me: The Paper Crane Who Couldn’t Fly.”

“Eh…? That sounds kinda sad.”

“Yes, I suppose it does,” Rice admitted with a tiny laugh. “When she was folded, she was told her wings could reach anywhere, as long as she believed she could fly. So she tried over and over. But every time she caught the wind, she would get caught by the currents or knocked down by the rain. Her wings would get torn, or the ink on her feathers would start to run, and she’d drop back down. Eventually… She soon stopped flying altogether. She just laid there on the ground, day after day, watching the other cranes drift overhead and telling herself she didn’t care. She coasted like that for a while, her frame turning creased and tattered.”

Haru’s ears flopped down. “Oh… that’s upsetting…”

“It is,” Rice agreed. “But one afternoon, an old friend of hers passed by and saw her trembling there. He didn’t try to fix her wings or tell her she could still fly. But he managed to get her to come outside. The crane didn’t understand at first, but she trusted her friend. When she finally left her home onto an open field, a massive gust blew across the field. She wasn’t ready for it, but despite her broken body, she was still swept into the skies. And before she knew it, the breeze had caught her paper feathers and she was moving again…”

“But… won’t the wind escape through her injured wings?”

“Yes, they did. It didn’t take long, but she quickly lost control of herself and came crashing back down… But this time, she didn’t stop at brushing off the dirt and walking away.”

Haru stared through blurry eyes, the story softly threading its way into her chest. “… So she tried again?”

“Her friend came up to her, and he told her that she didn’t need to reach the clouds. She just needed to lift herself enough to feel the wind again.”

“And she agreed. She wasn’t a great flyer, but she worked to fix her frame and patch her holes. And she went looking for the wind this time, not just letting it come by her when she was lucky. Even when it was pouring out, she crossed the valleys with her whole heart. She understood why she loved the skies to begin with.”

“... A-Are you saying I’m the crane?”

“Maybe we both are,” Rice sighed, “We’re both learning to… overcome our expectations to enjoy flying no matter what.”

Haru swallowed hard, the sound loud enough to where Rice’s ears twitched in response.

“I’m glad you care, maybe one day you’ll surprise us all. But that day won’t come if you keep pretending you don’t have your own share of issues.” Rice Shower ascertained. “After all, you only see cherry blossoms bloom after the rain.”

A small, bashful grunt escaped her friend. Then, slowly, a grin crept onto her face: this one tinged with defiance rather than fear. Renewed with energy, Haru Urara pushed herself off the grassy hill, brushing bits of dirt from her uniform. “Y’know, Rice-chan… I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that many words in one go.”

Rice’s face flared pink. “A-ah, sorry! I just-”

Haru hummed placidly. “No, I liked it. You’re right, you know. I do love the sky. Maybe that’s why I run… ’cause when I’m racing, that’s the closest I can get to flying.”

She slammed both feet against the floor and pointed dramatically toward the sun, as if daring the world to hear her words, “Maybe I’m not meant to win… I’m not the smartest horse girl, I’m not the strongest horse girl, and if my racing record shows anything, I’m definitely not the fastest horse girl, either. But, if there’s one thing that I’m good at,” She jabbed a thumb against her chest, voice ringing, “I am the most persistent-est around! I might not be able to always do it with a smile, but no matter how many times I fall flat on my face, I’ll always stand back up!”

“Y-Yes, you understand me now, Urara-chan!” Rice exclaimed, flustered but smiling. “Though I don't think ‘persistent-est’ is a word…”

“Oh, is it ‘persistently’, then? Ugh, it’s just like ‘pretigiousus’... Why did they need to make some of these words so hard to pronounce?” Haru wheezed, tittering despite the tear streaks across her face, “Well, anyways, even if it’s a hundred and thirteen losses, I’m not scared to stand back up for my one hundred and fourteenth race… Because I love racing.” To emphasise her statement, she planted both her feet firmly against the dirt and hoisted up, pointing her hand towards the horizon in a triumphant pose. “Do you hear that, world? Haru Urara will keep running, no matter what!” Her voice carried with a raw feeling, filled with passion and devoid of apathy, that seemed to shake the heavens themselves. 

Deep down, Rice knew her declaration wasn’t just to prove herself to the powers above, but to herself as well. 

“I think I might sign up for that sprint dirt course try-out session next week!” Haru piped up, pointing at a poster advertising said race in the distance.

“Why not? I think it’ll be a lot of fun! You’re a fantastic runner, I’m sure you’ll be able to defeat the competition!” Rice’s cheeks heated further, her gaze flickering away.

“And what if I can’t?” Haru asked, not with despair, but rather a searching curiosity for how Rice would respond.

“Then analyse your race, find out what went wrong, and come back stronger…!”

Haru laughed, a full, genuine laugh this time, letting the moment run its course. “Thank you for believing in me, for you, Urara will do her best!”

Rice felt herself relax too, wrapped in the comforting certainty that, no matter how many races were lost, this was one victory she could hold onto forever. The two of them stood together in the fading light, the track stretching out before them, a new path waiting to be chased.

All in all, Rice Shower was really glad she ran the Harmony Relay.