SBR Chapter 6

The Dried-Up River; Diego Brando is the sixth chapter of Steel Ball Run.

Summary
This chapter begins with an announcer describing the route the racers must take for the first stage of the race and commenting on Urmd Abdul's retirement from the race as well as the current progress of all the racers. While the announcer describes the current events of the race Stephen Steel has given orders to find out the history of Gyro Zeppeli before the deadline of the next day's newspaper. As Stephen Steel is giving this order to his men in the train with him Johnny is trailing behind Diego Brando thinking to himself "that Diego's moving strangely chasing from the right closing in from the left and he's gradually dropping the distance between himself and Gyro he's getting closer could it be he's an extraordinary jockey that made it up through British racing world in a matter of years." While Johnny is finishing his thought Diego moves in closer to Gyro saying to himself "I was surprised that the camel attack ended the way it did but i guess he was just a small fry right now i can see he's just an amateur i can see the outcome." As Diego moves closer to Gyro Johnny watches on trailing behind them remarking "that Diego has closed in on Gyro again and that he has discovered something." As Gyro moves forward he looks behind him to see Diego is gone as he looks around for where Diego could have gone he notices that Diego is now lined up with him. While this has happened Johnny who is trailing behind Gyro and Diego thinks to himself "so it's true he was reading but he discovered so quickly." as Diego begins to think "everything has its own habits whether it be machines or other objects horses especially since they are living beings and have more characteristics than humans for example one horse would always move its tail up and down before charging or another horse would move to the outside of the group and run when cornered a horse that shakes its head, a horse that would spin its ears when approached by another horse it dislikes, ones who lower their body, ones who change their strides if one could read all the habits of horses and attack them during a race everyone could be passed regardless of your own horse's stamina naturally the horse of this man has a habit every time this horse breathes eight times it always sways once to the left while running and naturally its speed drops when it sways." While finishing his thought Diego passes by Gyro shocking him and Johnny by this turn of events as Diego moves further ahead with Gyro to the side of him Johnny watching this happen thinks to himself "he's discovered the horse's habits does Gyro know about this no even if he knew about this if he tried to fix the horse's habits some other weakness would show up humans and horses work the same way and once he's overtaken he won't be able to take back the lead the distance would be widened in the same way." Gyro noticing the distance between himself and Diego moves close to him asking "hey what's up with this?" Diego noticing Gyro's presence responds by saying "hmph it's technique of the pros and yours is the racing of a bumpkin stay in the back." Gyro replies by saying "you're talking about habits you mean my horse has a running habit are you kidding me?" Diego states "would it even matter if i told you habits can't be changed just like fate." As Gyro and Diego begin to cross the bridge leading to the rest of the first stage Gyro touches his horses head saying to it "hey he says habits what's up with that you had habits i didn't know that what kind of habits do you have." he goes on to say this as he takes out his steel balls "so many powerful rivals the world's full of them but you don't have to fix your habits put more into you habits while your running." As he finishes talking to his horse Gyro puts the steel balls on its hind legs. After putting his steel balls on his horses hind legs Gyro's horse moves past Diego's during which Gyro states "hey hey your swaying so swaying to your left is your habit but good go ahead and let your anger explode." Due to how fast Gyro's horse is going on the bridge which is essentially to getting to the rest of the first stage of the race is ruined causing everyone including Diego as well as Johnny to use the dried up river below to catch up to Gyro. As Johnny watches Gyro move further ahead from the other side of the bridge he thinks to himself "again with the steel ball just like last time with my legs the strange spin of the steel ball run pulled out the horse's habits at an explosive rate." This chapter ends with Poco Loco waking up hours late for the Steel Ball Run race and walking to one of the clerks asking for the time then getting on his horse and running off at the starting point to catch up with the rest of the racers.