The sky is a shade of soft blue overhead, birds flying overhead with soft caws. A slow summer breeze blows in the air, leaving branches swinging in their wake.

  Left. Right. Left. Right.

  The sound of sneakers on pavement echoes in the air. Normcore comes down the winding path, her pace brisk. Sweat gleams on her forehead as she focuses wholly on the rhythm of her running.

  She slowly adjusts her breathing as she runs. The trail stretches out in front of her in a winding pattern, her head slowly mapping each segment to a racetrack. She would be entering the third corner just about n-

  “Norm! Wait!” The sound of frantic footsteps jolt her back to the present. She slows down to a walk as Masaru practically sprints to catch up with her. She drops her hands onto her knees, gasping wildly like she’s about to pass out. “Y-You got three lungs or somethin? How’re you doing that?”

  “Saru? What’s wrong?”

  “You’ve been going at race pace! I can’t keep up!”

  Norm comes to a stop in the middle of the trail, Masaru looking wholly relieved.

  “You know, you really should go at your own pace.” She retrieves her bottle and uncorks it. “Trying to match mine will only rush yours.”

  “It’s called partner running for a reason! What’s the point of running if you- huff- leave your partner behind?” Masaru practically deflates onto the ground, falling with a thump as she collapses spread-eagle style. “I- haaah- I need a break!”

  Norm stares at her friend on the ground before taking a sip.

  “Lying down like that is really bad for you. You should probably get up and walk it off.”

  “Easy for you to say.” Masaru grumbles and sits up. She stares at Normcore’s extended hand for a second, then up at her- before grabbing it with a resigned sigh.

  “Hup!”

  The two resume their journey through the path, now at a much milder walking pace. Masaru looks as if her soul had just been drained; and her hair, already messy, was now covered in a fine sheen of dust and gravel.

  “Man, I am not cut out for this…” She groans, her head slanted sideways like a zombie. “I’m gonna fall apart if I end up running again.”

  “It can’t be that bad, Saru. Push through it, I believe in you.”

  Normcore’s ears lazily twitch as they swing around her head. Moments of solace like these were rare- Kentaro had curbed his aggression only to stash them tenfold elsewhere. Some days he became overbearing, other days downright neglectful. Some days he didn’t bother showing up to training, other days he would show up early and then berate the two for missing timings that were adjusted five minutes ahead.

  “Hey, Norm… why do you run?”

  A question from left field catches her completely off guard. She freezes for a solid five seconds, her brain screaming in dial-up noise. A dozen answers flash through her brain, but none of them felt applicable. What was she supposed to say, the truth?

  “Because I enjoy it, I suppose.” She replies.

  “Really? Even after all that’s happened?” Masary throws a questioning look at her. “Even if running means you have to stay with Fatty?”

  “I wouldn’t let one bad person ruin the joy of running for me. That would be the equivalent of letting him win.”

  “But you could run anywhere, anytime. Why not just go for a run on the pasture of an old barn? Why not go for a run on the riverbank? Why the racetrack? Why the Twinkle Series?”

  “That’d get boring after a while, no? There’s no struggle. No pain. It’d be boring precisely because it isn’t hard.” Norm tilts her head, her hand drifting to her chin as she stares up into the sky. “Besides, admit it. It feels good to beat people in a race.”

  “If you wanted that, you could’ve stayed in the regionals. Staked in a different school, be trained under someone else. I dunno… Tracen, the Twinkle Series… It feels pretty far away for someone like you and me. I mean, look at where we’re at. Do you think someone like us could make it to Nationals?”

  She gestures broadly at the old, run down cobblestone walls and dilapidated buildings by the path. The city wasn’t dirty, but now that she had gotten a good look. It wasn't exactly new either. It was forgotten, neglected, and most importantly… average.

  “You say you keep running because it’s fun. But… I don’t believe you, Norm.”

  Norm comes to a surprised stop, her ears twitching slightly. Masaru doesn’t stop.

  “I’ve seen you running early in the morning and late at night, alone.” Her voice breaks, her words force through clenched teeth. “I’ve seen you come through the door shivering, miserable, covered in bruises. I’ve seen you push yourself so far past the limit you come back a wreck. You’re willing to put yourself on the line time and again, with absolutely no regard for your own wellbeing. How? How can you keep running like that? Why do you keep running like that?”

  “Saru.” Norm begins. “I-”

  “I need to know why! Because I can’t do it! I can’t make myself go through what you go through no matter how hard I try!”

  She blinks, dumbfounded. Masaru dives into her shirt, yanking on it with a firm hand.

  “Every day I want to leave because of what Fatty puts us through! I thought that maybe if you could endure it, I could too! I thought we’d see things out together, but I can’t!”

  Her voice rips, a ragged gasp tearing from her throat.

  “I don’t wanna be here! Running isn’t fun for me! You can get away from this place because you’re good enough, but I can’t! I don’t have your passion, or your drive, or your talent… What the hell do *I* do?!”

  She chokes back a sob, lifting her eyes in a pathetic sniffle.

  “I don’t know what to do, Norm… I don’t wanna imagine a world with you gone…”

  “Saru…” She hesitates for a second before pulling her head closer. She slowly feels the tears soak through her shirt, her small frame trembling and sobbing in her embrace.

  “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to, you know.” She whispers.

  “I can’t… just leave…” Masaru hics, “My parents… they…”

  Normcore slowly guides her to a nearby bench. A few minutes go by with her blowing into a handkerchief, until she finally gathers herself enough to speak up again.

  “They really want me to make it big, you know.” Her eyes glisten as her ears plaster tightly against her head. Her tail slumps defeated by her side, its hairs dull and lifeless. “Mom used to race a lot back then too. She wanted me to go pro because she never could.”

  Normcore slumps back on the bench.

  “When I got old enough, she’d take me out and have me run. She kept telling me how good of a racer I would be. I believed her. My parents did everything they could to send me to this academy, they wanted to make sure I’d never have the same regret they did.”

  She throws a tear-glistening stare at Norm.

  “But… When we were running together today, all I could think about-” She sniffles and turns away, “-was how much farther the distance between us got by the second. I’m happy for you, Norm, I really am… But I’d never catch up to you.”

  She turns back around, forcing a smile through her tears.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “When we first met, I thought we would be buddies all the way till the top. Then I realized… that only the select few are ever allowed to walk that path.”

  Normcore slowly folds her arms over her chest. A slow, cool breeze blows over the two, causing her hair to ripple. A warm smile spreads over her face, and then she chuckles.

  “Saru. Is this what you want?”

  Masaru freezes on the spot, as if she hadn’t even pondered the question itself.

  “If you truly wish to be on top, to become one of the best racers in the world… then I’ll come with you. I’ll drag you there if I have to. Come hell or high water, I’ll make sure it happens.”

  Norm, seeing her reaction, gives her a soft rustling in the hair.

  “But if it isn’t what you want for yourself, then all that hard work would be meaningless in the end. Is this your dream that you’re chasing? Or are you chasing the expectations placed upon your back by others?”

  Silence. Neither of them say a word. Normcore breaks the silence with the crinkling of her water bottle.

  “I’m headed for Tracen because I know there’s someone waiting for me there. Someone whose footsteps I need to follow. Someone who I have to catch up with. But most importantly, there's someone I wish to become. That’s why I strive so hard to be the best.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it. That’s my dream. People have every right to criticize it for being shallow or delusional… but it’s mine. It’s something that I want to work for. That’s why I can put my heart, my being, my life and soul into my goals.”

  She gives Masaru’s chest a quick jab, causing her to yelp.

  “So ask yourself. ‘Is this what I want? Is this what I need?’ If the seed in the soil has been the wrong one all along, how can you ever hope to grow the right tree?”

  “I-I don’t know…” Masaru blinks softly. Her sadness slowly shifts to confusion.

  “It’s okay to not know, Saru. Not all of us know.” Norm gives her a smile. “I’m lucky precisely because I know what my purpose is, but life is about finding that purpose. At the end of the day, it’s always easier to tell what it is you don’t want.”

  She extends a hand and places it in front of Masaru.

  “But the most important thing is to not lie to yourself. You’re right. I wasn’t being truthful- That ‘I run because I enjoy it’ was a load of horseradish, and I’m sorry for that. So, starting from now… nothing but honesty. Not just to each other, but to ourselves too. Okay?”

  “Ah?” Masaru blinks a few times, aggressively wiping the tears from her face. Her expression blossoms into a look of determination before grabbing Normcore’s hand.

  “Y-Yeah!”

  They finish the rest of their walk in silence, picking up a brisk jog at the end to not be yelled at by Kentaro. To their surprise, however, his figure was nowhere to be found. His car was parked sloppily in a lot at the end of the trail, yet neither engine nor lights were on.

  “The hell? Did he leave on foot?”

  Normcore’s mind is suddenly filled with an image of Kentaro waddling down the street.

  “Unlikely. He drives the car to that one convenience store by the school entrance. Fatty can’t walk a kilometer to save his life.”

  The two walk up to the school-issued van, a large white beat-down old car that had enough grease and food scraps inside to feed a raccoon for months. The inside was all but empty, save for the scuttling of critters in the food-invested crevices. An uneasy, exasperated sensation crawls up Normcore’s spine.

  “Looks like he’s not here.” Masaru presses her head against the window to make sure.

  “Why wouldn’t he just wait in the damn car?” Normcore taps her feet on the pavement, her hand at her chin and her tail agitatedly swinging. “Where the hell can be possibly-”

  Her tone deadpans as her eyes slowly move across the street to spot… a restaurant.

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

  Thunk. Normcore firmly plants herself against a large glass window.

  The restaurant was a small, home-run business. The interior was rather run-down, wallpaper peeling off onto the floor and several lights broken. It looked empty save for a handful of people eating, though the bright sunlight outside made it hard to make out the silhouettes.

  “Do you see him?”

  “Let’s see… if I was a fat, balding middle-aged asshole with a vendetta against horsegirls who’ve done nothing to provoke me, where the hell would I be?”

  Her eyes slowly zone in on a TV on the far end of the restaurant, then down at the unmistakable blurry silhouette by the table below.

  “Found him. Not particularly hard, they could probably spot him from low orbit.”

  She mutters and pulls herself off the glass, then blinks. Her ears flicker before she presses herself back against the window, spooking Masaru in the process.

  “The hell? Is that a..?”

  Her eyes zero in on his fist on the table. It was hard to make out, gripped so tightly between his fingers it was practically a bow. It was white, long, looking like it was made of paper.

  “Looks like a receipt. That doesn’t make sense, why the hell is he holding his receipt so tightly?”

  Her eyes shift back up towards the TV. A race. She had never seen Kentaro focus so hard on something in his life. Then it clicked- it was probably a betting ticket. Contempt and disgust bubble up inside her like an ungodly concoction, practically threatening to boil.

  “Norm!” Masaru hisses as she feels a soft tug on her shirt. “Get off the window, people are staring.”

  “Sorry.” She reluctantly grumbles. “I just- Wow. What a loser. Grass is always greener on the other side, huh? Always about who wins, but never when it comes to your trainees.”

  “It’s even worse than that.” Masaru’s voice drips with disdain, eyes narrowing as she walks towards the restaurant door. “He was even betting against *you* the other day.”

  Normcore’s brain stops for a split second. Masaru’s halfway to the entrance by the time she comes to realize what she just said. Her disgust turns to confusion.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Saru.” She yanks her back by the collar. “What did you just say?”

  “Ah!” Masaru lets out a yelp. “What? He bet against you the other day. Pretty despicable stuff.”

  “Huh? He’s… legally not allowed to do that. He’s my trainer. That’s match fixing.” Normcore’s brow furrows. “If the JRA gets proof, they’ll revoke his license.”

  Silence. The two stare at each other, letting the implications stew in the air. Then, simultaneously, the gears click into place. Her eyes flash towards the window, a flame of hatred within them burning so bright it could burn a hole straight through the glass.

  “The tablet. We gotta get the tabl-”

  A loud yell echoes from the restaurant before she can finish, making them both jump. Kentaro had just thrown his hands up into the air, hollering and screaming loudly at the TV. She couldn’t make out the words he was saying, but she reckoned the fat flinging around on his arms could smash a hole through the wall.

  “Huh. Looks like he lost.” Masaru says, her tail slowly settling back down. Before either of them could take a step towards the restaurant, however, the owner storms out the back, brandishing a rag threateningly. The two men begin a heated exchange, one which results in the owner repeatedly jabbing his arm towards the door.

  “Oh, shit. He’s getting kicked out.” Normcore blinks. She grabs Saru by the arm and suddenly bolts for the other end of the street. “Run, Saru, run!”

  “Huh? Wha-?” She stammers, her feet practically in a full sprint before she even realizes what was happening. “What’s the matter? Why are we running?”

  “Are you crazy? He just lost a bet and got yelled at, of course he’s not gonna be in a good mood.” Normcore throws a hasty look across the street and decides to sprint through the red light. “If he sees us here he’s gonna skin us alive. Just run. Run.”

  Kentaro was fumbling with his jacket now. The adrenaline doesn’t stop, both ears upright as blood pounds in their head. Neither of them dare look back as they hightail it past the sidewalk, then the pavement, hopping the fence and into the parking lot. Fortunately, there were no signs of yelling from across the street.

  “Haa… Haa… Haaaf…” Masaru hunches over, out of breath and legs burning. “Let’s not… ever do that again…

  “Agreed. That was a miscalculation on my part.” Normcore lets out a few airy gasps with her hands on her hips. “If fatty wants to slack, let him slack all he wants.”

  Kentaro’s lumbering figure doesn’t appear on the other end for quite a while. Masaru leans down to tie her shoelaces that had come undone in the run, Normcore’s ears slowly lowering as she watches.

  “You said something about the tablet?”

  “Yeah. The tablet.” Normcore slowly wipes her face with her shirt. “If I recall correctly, he makes all his bets on it. If we can find his payment history, we could nail him.”

  “That won’t do. He told a friend to pay for the bet. The deal’s done under the table.”

  Normcore frowns. What were they supposed to do then? Pull up the call logs? Call up his friend to testify? Pull the records from the betting systems?”

  “Damn, looks like we’re out of luck then. The JRA won’t prosecute based on witness testimony alone.” She lets out a deep resigned sigh, her shoulders slumping against the car like all the life had gone out of her. For a fleeting moment she thought she had a lifeline, only for fate to cruelly snatch it away from right under her nose.

  She slowly presses a hand to the window, rubbing her nose bridge with the other. They were this close. They had him on the ropes, and yet there was no way to get the noose around his damn fat neck…

  Then, as quickly as the light began to fade, a lightbulb pops into her head.

  “Oh!” She slams her fist onto her hand. “I know!”

  “Stop doing that, Norm!” Masaru practically jumps into the air.

  “The Unicorn Stakes is upcoming, right, Saru? If he bet against me in the Michinoku Kogen, that means he lost money in that race.” Normcore’s eyes glitter in the sunlight. “I bet he’s desperate to make all of it back.”

  “Yeah, so…?”

  “Think about it. A turf racer running on a dirt course. He thinks I have no chance. Any reasonable human being would think I have no chance. To some dumbass like him, it’s as safe a bet as any! We just gotta get him to bet big against me, and then have the JRA bust his ass for it when he does!”

  “You’re putting yourself out there as bait?” Masaru doesn’t look quite convinced. One of her eyebrows go up in skepticism, her tail slowly swinging. “That’s dangerous. What if he sabotages you? You’re risking your career here.”

  Norm leans back and lets out a big hearty laugh.

  “Come on, he’s not gonna do that. Think about it, Saru. Wouldn’t it serve a better lesson to me if he let me run and I end up crawling back to him? That’s why I gotta prove him wrong. That’s why I gotta-”

  “You! Off the car!” A roar comes from the other end of the parking lot, causing Norm to spook and slam headfirst into the passenger window.

  “Norm! Are you okay?” A flock of crows fly off a nearby electrical line as Masaru’s shrieks reverberate throughout the neighborhood.