Chapter Text
“Good morning, racing fans! It’s Tenno Sho day, and what a showdown we have lined up! Champions, contenders, and rising stars are all set to clash in what promises to be a thrilling battle down the stretch!”
Run.
The triumphant fanfare played the same orchestral anthem she heard so many times. It was starting.
Run.
The commentators boomed through the speakers, presenting each racers. Her name was not on the list.
Run.
Blood pounded in her ears.
Three. Two. One. Bang. The race had started, with the gates burst open.
She should be running but instead she lay down on the grass and letting the sun warm her face in the middle of the race course.
Run. That was her previous reason to live.
Curse. That was what she was meant to do, or at least that was how her brain was reshaped to believe.
The thunder of hooves gradually drew closer to her, but she didn’t want to move yet. People, Umamusume — their names slipping from her memories — were calling for her. She could still hear it, distantly, and she desperately clung to these lasting feelings of them. But soon enough, even their smell disappeared, leaving a thick fog shadowing over her thoughts and heart. Only a single tear ran down her face.
The horses, quadruped creatures, were approaching quickly toward her, still lying down. But at the last moment, the leading horses noticed or sensed her, and abruptly avoided running over her. Chaos arose on the field as the jockeys desperately tried to regain control over their partners.
Finally, she stood up for what felt like an eternity. The jockeys didn’t seem to notice her as she moved between the horses calming them down. She remembered she could speak.
“H-Hello…”The first jockey she addressed simply and completely ignored as if she didn’t exist. They were all too occupied to get the horses back in control. She understood.
She looked over at the crowd, their faces reflecting clear displeasure. She had disrupted a race that carried so much hope and belief. She wanted to apologize, but no one was looking in her direction—no one except a single man.
He stood out immediately.
Baggy white pants. A tight black T-shirt stretched across a frame broader than anyone around him. Draped over his shoulders was a strange, small worm-like creature clinging to him. He was bigger than the others and yet, she couldn’t sense him. It was her physical eyes that caught him.
His expression was sharp, clearly irritated, not loud anger, but something colder. And he was the first to look directly at her.
Her instincts were screaming at her to go as far away from him as possible. She didn’t hesitate and ran toward the exit, her legs feeling lighter than ever.
Never had she felt as scared as she was at that moment. Her environment was both familiar and unfamiliar to her at the same time. She instinctively navigated through the corridors and toward the exit, as if her body had memorize the place. While she expected someone to stop her at any moment, none did. She had to avoid all the people along her escape, while they ignored her.
When she exited the arena, she was met with a world she thought she knew. There was a lot of people, phone in hands, walking in the streets. The clamor from inside the arena had finally begun to fade; the chaos must have settled.
In some distant corner of her heart, she was glad that they — the horses — could run again. That momentary moment of happiness quickly changed for anxiety however.
Everything around her — the people, the buildings, the air itself — was resonating with her. Their emotions, fears, frustrations, all of it was wrapping her consciousness. It was all telling her the same thing.
Break, Hurt, and Destroy. That urge crawled under her skin, and she absolutely hated it.
“Well… It is my first time seeing the birth of a curse spirit.” A sharp and masculine voice spoke to her from behind. Startled, she jumped slightly backward, bumping someone, that didn’t seem to care at all.
“W-What is happening?? W-what am I?” She was shaking in fear, but still dared to ask a question, that was how far she could do. The man before her was not normal, but he knew more about this world than her.
The man hummed slightly, seemingly interested at the sudden development.
“That’s a complicated question,” the man said at last, lips curling into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “You are the same as this guy over here.”
He pointed at the creature wrapped around his arm that was twitching, teeth wide open. She flinched, more questions arising in her mind. They were not alike.
“A curse spirit,” he continued, casually, like a child reciting their lesson. “Born from obsession, regret, fear. Strong ones usually come from places like this with lots of negative emotions from losing money from a race.” His eyes drifted past her, toward the stadium towering behind them.
Her chest tightened. A Curse.
“I-I don’t want this,” she whispered. “I don’t want to be a curse…”
“Pfff… A curse that doesn’t want to be a curse.” He chuckled. “That’s a first for me.”
She looked down at her hands. The screaming sensation inside her flared again, urging her to destroy and to attack the man in front of her. She clenched her fists instead, quieting this impulse. Silence stretched between them, broken only by distant traffic and the echo of cheers from the arena. She realized then that no one else was looking at them. To the passing crowd, the man was alone.
“What will happen to me now?” Her voice was now a small whisper of resignation.
He exhaled slowly, approaching closer to her and putting his hand on her shoulder. She could feel the strength of his grip as she couldn’t move, both in the literal sense and from fear. Anxiety creeped in her heart.
“Well,” he said, “normally, I’d exorcise you on the spot.”
Her breath stopped. Could she accept her own death? She could have guessed it since earlier that she was different from the living beings. But she didn’t want to believe it. She had some sort of natural instinct to cause harm… Dying would be the easiest choice for her. If only…
“But you are different. You are intelligent and can communicate with me, that’s a first for a curse spirit.” he added, eyes narrowing thoughtfully before relaxing, “And beside, I am not payed for this, so today’s your lucky day. Thus, I will leave you three other choices—”
She wanted to run away and flee now but she was already trapped. The grip strengthen, as she desperately struggled internally. The external noises from the road and the stadium had totally died down and only the strong and powerful voice of the man in front of her remained to her ears. They were alone in this world, and none would save her now.
“First choice,” he said, lightly stepping closer. “I let you off and eventually you are going to get caught by some sorcerers that are either going to experiment on you or exorcise you… or worst who knows what they are capable of after all.”
She shuddered. Maybe she was lucky to have been found by that man instead of other people.
“Second choice,” he continued, his voice deepening with a darker tone on each words he pronounced. “I can exorcise you right here since you don’t want to be a curse. I can also force you to cause some damage, and get a bonus from the exorcise.”
He was not joking or thinking any less from this option. It was a possibility and she became afraid. It was not merely words about dying now, it was a real option, a real future, that could happen to her. Her body trembled at the thought subconsciously.
“Hum…? Scared? Don’t worry, you have a third and last choice,” A sinister smile grew on his face. “I take you with me, and you will have to obey all my orders.”
??? Immediately, her mind raced through the options. But the pure pressure she felt from the man was blurring her mind. It was almost as if his presence alone was pinning her soul in place.
“Obey…?” she repeated, her voice barely audible.
“Any and all my orders,” he confirmed calmly, as if discussing the weather. The creature on his arm twitched again, white teeth showing. “Not without any compensation of course, because you get to live for some time.”
She looked back at the stadium. The cheers had resumed. Another race, another winner, other losers that had their dreams stolen.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she repeated again, more firmly this time. She wanted to be selfish. She wanted to believe that she could live.
The man tilted his head, studying her curiously. “You’re a curse. You will hurt someone… eventually. The question is whether it’ll be because you lost control… or because I told you to.”
Her chest tightened painfully. That impulse inside her acted again, almost desiring to let loose, destroy. It wanted fear. It wanted to prove that she has a purpose for existing.
“…If I go with you,” she asked slowly, “can I still be myself?”
Silence.
For the first time, his smile faded—not completely, but enough to show something colder underneath.
“That depends,” he said. “How strong are you?”
She didn’t know the answer. She didn’t even know what she was anymore. Memories from a time before were already fading into a long lived dream. A curse that didn’t want to curse. A mistake born from the people losing. An Umamusume that died on the race.
Her legs trembled. Knees buckling, she would’ve fallen if not for his hand still resting on her shoulder.
“I’m scared,” she admitted, tears blurring her vision. “But… I don’t want to disappear. Not yet. I don’t want to give up anymore.”
The man’s eyes gleamed.
“Good,” he said. “That fear is what keeps curses alive. You will live for as long as you remain useful for me. My name’s Toji. Toji Fushiguro.”
“M-Mine is Rice Shower.” Her response surprised Toji. He didn’t expected her to have a name, but she seemed confident that it was hers.
He released her at last, straightening up and turning away, already walking down the street as if the decision had been made.
“Follow me,” he added over his shoulder. “From now on, you belong to me. Rice Shower.”
She hesitated only a second.
Then, with legs lighter than ever and a heart heavier than stone, she followed.