Uma Musume: In My Debut Race, I Read Every Runner's Positioning

To save her sick mother, the Uma Musume Xiu Xingmeng needs 100,000 points and a Triple Crown qualification. But her debut race puts her up against the genius Tokai Teio.

Again and again, she takes off from the starting line. Again and again, she loses. Then, as she crosses the finish line one time, a cold prompt sounds in her ear: Quest failed. Executing reset. Xiu Xingmeng finds herself back in the competitors' passage, with a scarlet alarm clock at her feet, its pendulum swinging back and forth.

She soon discovers that she can remember every Uma Musume's position in each race, every gap in the course, even which patches of turf are slickest with rainwater. Tokai Teio remains a white crescent moon she can't catch, but with every reset, the gap between them shrinks by a horse length.

When she finally wins the debut race in the rain, Xiu Xingmeng thinks it's all over. Then one day, she catches a glimpse of a purple-and-gold cape around a corner, and hears muffled panting from across the bookshelves. She whirls around, but all she sees is an empty hallway. Out of sight, T M Opera O has just pulled her crown back behind a tree trunk, Orfevre is frantically hiding a pair of binoculars, and Narita Brian's hem is caught on a fire hydrant.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.