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The motto of Tracen Academy is “Eclipse First, The Rest Nowhere.”
Most students don’t think much of it, of course, but it’s a fantastically brutal motto.
It means: only victory matters, only the victor matters. An athlete’s only aim is to surpass the competition and achieve total domination.
At least, that’s how Symboli Rudolf explained it, when Tamamo Cross first joined the National League, almost four years ago.
Tamamo prefers another way to express the same sentiment.
Vae victis. Woe to the vanquished.
It’s quicker, pithier, more to the point — just her style.
Vae victis.
It’s how she’s lived, these past few years. Victory before all else, and damn the runners-up.
It’s a good philosophy. It works. It gave her the drive she needed to dominate the Twinkle series for years.
The only real problem, if you can even call it a problem, is that Tamamo's philosophy of racing hasn’t given her much opportunity to get good at losing with grace.
Weeks later, she still can’t get her final Arima Kinen out of her head. More to the point, she can’t get Oguri Cap out of her head.
The image of Oguri’s beaming face presents itself before her inner eye, and completely ignores her attempts to swat it away like a mosquito.
Even in Tamamo’s imagination, her young upstart of a rival has no respect for seniority.
This is ridiculous, she tells herself. It doesn’t work. Of course, it didn’t work the first several dozen times, either, so she had no real reason to think it would work now.
She’s a kid, idiot doesn’t fare any better. Oguri’s bright, sweet smile, the tightness of her hug, the strength of her running are still fixed in her mind.
What am I, some kinda cradle snatcher? only serves to increase Tamamo’s frustration.
Whatever. She doesn’t have time to mull over this. She’s a Dream Trophy League runner now, and she needs to get her dorm room cleaned up before her new roommate arrives to move in.
Maybe having a roommate will be enough to take her mind off of her stupid, idiotic crush.
If Fuji’s schedule was accurate, the new girl should have arrived by now, unless she got lost-
A knock on her door finishes Tamamo’s thought for her. That must be her.
Banishing all further thought of her former rival, Tamamo strides smartly to the door, checking her reflection in the mirror for the briefest moment — it never hurts to make a good impression — and opens the door to meet her new roommate.
Standing there, a sweet, goofy smile plastered over her pretty face, a massive suitcase by her side, is Oguri Cap.
“Oh, fuck me.”