Chapter 1617: NO．231：bro feels like he

NO．231：bro feels like he's the protagonist of a tokusatsu drama

When it comes to the topic of fate, humans tend to be more pragmatic.

What benefits one's path is considered heavenly mandate; what harms one's path should be "my fate, I control it, not heaven."

Although there are also those who see fate as heralding tragedy and adopt a defeatist attitude we cannot resist, that attitude often results from having resisted and failed.

So deep down, everyone still subconsciously rebels against an unacceptable story's direction, just as many horse girls inevitably throw themselves into the struggle to rewrite the soul's fate of horse racing.

After all, among the countless interworld horse races, very few have smooth, satisfying careers.

They are each their own hardships, each their own difficulties, and this even applies to the relatively modern era where horse racing treatment has already improved somewhat.

Earlier horse racing—setting aside Japan, which developed latest—such as the United States, Britain, Italy, and the like, are all synonymous with tragedy.

Dying on the racetrack, training field, or horse farm, bearing various injuries, ending up with hidden wounds from frequent drug stimulation, living out a shortened remainder of life……the three goddesses rarely draw the souls of horse racing from those eras, because their circumstances are too extreme and unsuitable for human life.

What people want to see is vibrant life, not life struggling on the survival line, and even less so, since this itself is extremely malicious toward those children and their families; even if you say infant souls are attracted to horse racing souls and thus share similar fates……as an excuse, this can only invite more misunderstanding and hatred.

So in the end we just let it go.

Let those children who suffered enough in life sleep a little longer.

When a better era arrives, we can hope these children can support each other with the similarly struggling human children on that side, and together write a brighter, more splendid chapter of life.

However, the thoughts of the person involved and the understanding of others often differ; even as her masterpiece, even as one of its beneficiaries, the horse girl often feels bewildered, and after that bewilderment arrives at an understanding far removed from the three goddesses' expectations.

If we put ourselves in their shoes, likening them to distant, silent, money‑only parents and left‑behind children, it's easy to see why so many horse girls don't know the three goddesses' wishes and original intent.

Among these horse girls, Senlinbaoxue is clearly the batch with the more proactive mindset.

She has a childhood friend equipped with knowledge from another world, allowing her easy access to many horse‑racing‑related topics that peers her age would rather not think about, and then she goes on to thoroughly examine the life of the otherworldly horse racing known as Senlinbaoxue.

Yet what she fixates on is never how many wins or losses she's had, what regrettable failures or outstanding successes.

Her unwavering gaze is only on those opponents who have names and surnames.

Blaze Swift Steed, Manchester Chazuo, Ailisuzhi……the names that once raced alongside another Senlinbaoxue in another world, breaking through the door to a new era, give her twelve‑fold fighting spirit, and even after a painful defeat she remains undiminished.

Rather, it is precisely because of that defeat that she gains a clearer cognition of those formidable rivals, and at the same time notices the other two strong enemies in that duo's team.

Even that defeat became the opportunity that let her satisfy herself greatly, enabling her to truly speak on equal terms with Ailisuzhi, and thus she can confidently visit their activity room……

Only then does she feel the genuine sense of a competitive showdown, rather than just her own side self‑indulging.

Thus she is especially grateful for the fate of her so‑called horse‑racing soul.

She thanks it for letting her quickly and accurately lock onto every guy she needs to surpass.

She doesn't think such a trajectory is bad, so she wholeheartedly goes along with this fate, even eager to accelerate this trajectory to burst into their view, blocking them head‑on!

Losing once isn't anything.

Although she was initially annoyed and unwilling, she didn't wait for the trainer or childhood friend's consolation; her never‑yielding heart, cultivated since childhood, instantly ignited an even more surging fighting spirit!

That's how it should be!

Only this kind of strength can be called a formidable rival!

Just thinking that the guys blocking her ahead number four, her battle‑thrilling heart is left only with satisfaction and exaltation!

The battle truly begins now; feeling this light‑hearted, she can even turn around to comfort her trainer—who challenged four times before rising from local to central, and after her single loss feels even lower than her childhood friend.

The Triple Crown King achievement may be gone, but saying it's no regret is lying; however, Senlinbaoxue, whose very acquisition of an entry right was that rocky, had already anticipated it.

She naturally possesses the self‑awareness of having stepped onto this place as a challenger.

She has obtained the victories needed to accumulate fans and heat from the several preliminary races required to stand here; indeed she once had a two‑win streak, letting her feel the power embodied in her determination.

When she first set foot in the Gaoyue Prize, she also felt she had already become a somebody, fully capable of going to find Ailisuzhi and the others to throw down a challenge……that ulterior motive behind that move is not something she'd deny, but nowadays she no longer thinks about it.

She merely decided to readjust and lock in her challenger identity, re‑pack her gear, and set out again.

Such a fresh start is naturally not without gain.

"What are you dawdling for, Senlinbaoxue‑kun? We won't keep waiting for you~"

Standing at the end of the corridor, amid the few glances cast by passing athletes, she nonchalantly swings her overly long sleeves—seemingly also regarding herself as a kind of stepping stone, always retaining a hint of contempt—Ailisuzhi greets her.

Horse girls who run GI races ought to wear the decisive attire; the classic Triple Crown is even more so. Senlinbaoxue has more than once thought that Ailisuzhi's decisive attire truly suits her demeanor, that gaze, and carries a researcher's aloofness that studies people with ill intent.

It matches exactly the image of the enemy‑role researcher she imagined from the tokusatsu shows she watched as a child.

Gloomy, sinister, plus a detached view of people as objects; placed in those eyes like venetian blinds, it's a heavenly thunder‑clap fitting, a kind that even friends wouldn't want to lose to, capable of reversing morale—just right!

So fitting! Senlinbaoxue can tell at a glance that this guy is an excellent bastard; placed among that gloomy, mechanical, cold‑hearted squad, he's also a kind of emblem, akin to the longest‑appearing member among the Four Heavenly Kings' villainous executives.

He may not be strong enough, but he's definitely disgusting enough, able to cling on by all sorts of messy means and refuse to leave the stage, dragging it out for ten‑odd or twenty‑odd episodes!

Targeting him as a goal is also not wise; after all, if we liken the racetrack to a theater, then such a disgusting guy will be the sort who, even without a championship, will use every means to disgust you while stubbornly clinging to the top ranks.

At this point it would be better to aim for that gloomiest guy, or perhaps the strongest, coldest one……

And the very first one she must defeat……

Is you!

She turns toward the chestnut‑red‑haired horse girl who sensed the gaze and looked back puzzled, killing intent bristling!

The most inconspicuous of the Four Heavenly Kings, like the creations of that sinister guy before, she is usually silent and taciturn, and often can suppress challengers into silence with sheer numbers—the cyber horse girl!

I will surely catch up to you!

Miura Bourbon: "?"