Tuesday night, Towa was still driving the Probox.

All the while he had this car, he had been camping the Fruits Line waiting for that S2000 to turn up again. It hasn't happened yet.

Sumire was kind of annoyed by this, but didn't stop him. She just went to bed early for work anyway, and the weekends he spent some time with her, bringing her shopping and stuff. Even offered to bring her to some place doing Tanabata events on Sunday if she wanted, but she declined.

The Probox was surprisingly useful in this moment though, as Sumire wanted a new bookshelf, so Towa drove it to a big chain furniture store in Mito. There's no way in hell they'd be able to bring it back with the Roadster, so it was a blessing in disguise.

Before tonight, Towa had an idea though. He realized something about the Geo Timer application that meant he didn't need to do a stakeout on this car. Towa just needed to call Mizuho, which he did this evening.

"I know you are able to track every runner with the application open." Towa stated, and Mizuho was impressed that he realized this.

"Open or not, I can, yes." Mizuho replied while chuckling, it made sense to Towa.

"Then I need help tracking a car, if he turns up, can you message me?" Towa requested.

"Sure."

That's how Towa was now parked discreetly right below the Omote Skyline sign, turning left would lead to the Fruits Line time attack starting point. With the lights off, engine running, ready to pounce. Mizuho sent a literal live screen tracking showing the location of 'Inazuma' on the Fruits Line, which meant Towa could sneak in from the west.

It was highly accurate as well, as the S2000 actually appeared going through the intersection, it was so accurate Towa found it a bit scary, but that didn't matter right now.

Towa turned the lights on, which seemed to startle that S2000 driver a bit, and set off immediately following the back of that car, which was now parked beneath the Flower Park sign.

Towa was a bit befuddled as to why this person was acting so strange, considering the Geo Timer application was just a fun thing, and he had not met anyone acting this weird in the group. Somehow, it made it seemed like this person had an ulterior motive...

Unexpectedly, the S2000 opened the door, and the driver was stepping out, this actually made Towa hold his breath with a bit of anticipation.

The driver of that S2000, was someone Towa knew and did not expect to see at all. He was similarly shocked when he saw it was Towa who was driving the Probox.

The Nasu number plate? Towa was right to suspect that.

"Satoshi-senpai?" Towa muttered.

"Wakisaka?" Satoshi replied back.

Satoshi Sawatari, brother of Takeshi Sawatari, a person Towa knew from his times in Otawara. A person he had not seen for more than 8 years. A person he knew was the sensible and responsible one of the two brothers, and was the one who he actually looked up to. While he was also interested in cars, he wasn't just wasting the bottomless pit of money the Sawatari had in order to do so.

Satoshi was similar in appearance to Takeshi, a tall and pretty imposing man, but the air around him was completely the opposite. While Takeshi always appeared a bit immature, Satoshi always seemed older and wiser than he actually was.

"Why are you here?" Towa asked.

"No, why are you driving THE Probox?" Satoshi asked back the more pressing question, "I assume it's the same Probox that Takeshi followed and crashed."

"It is the one, but I wasn't driving it at the time." Towa replied, very wary as to what he's saying.

"No, I have to assure you, it's not my intention to find the man who caused the crash." Satoshi told Towa, although it didn't make him any less wary. "As you know, it was clearly Takeshi's fault."

"Is that so? I thought your parents were pretty pissed off. They made some pretty huge noise from what I heard."

Satoshi thought Towa had a completely different vibe from the time he was still in high school. He was more straightforward, braver to say what's on his mind, less timid. Maybe he's just grown up and is now a proper adult, like Satoshi was, and Takeshi never managed to.

"Even if they didn't know about the app, they knew about the road. They wanted to close it, but it was really quixotic and no chance it'd have gone anywhere." Satoshi replied.

"Was that really the case? They tried to close it?"

Towa did not know the details, but knew that the 2 weeks of police activities in the area had started with something somehow. It turns out that it was the Sawatari that tried to close the road completely, and not just point the police to the place.

"Look, Wakisaka, they spoiled Takeshi too much, and they panicked. They did it on the whim. I did not want it either." Satoshi tried to explain.

"Truthfully, Satoshi-senpai, I don't really care."

What Towa was saying stopped Satoshi on his track immediately.

After a few second of awkward silence, Towa continued the conversation the best he could.

"I never knew you wanted an S2000." Towa said, more calmly now.

"I got some money from grandfather after he passed. I figured if not this I don't know what else I would spend it on..." Satoshi was honest about the origin of this silver car.

"Well, it's not a bad way to spend 2.5 million yen, right?"

"Don't be silly, Wakisaka, this was 5 million yen 4 months ago."

"What?!"

Towa was shocked to hear the price of a used S2000 these days, it was more than a lot of newer, faster cars out there. Somehow Satoshi chose this and used it to run the Fruits Line, and doing it fast enough for him to beat Mizuho's record as well.

"I know it's a lot, but I've always wanted one since I was in elementary school." Satoshi explained, with a tiny, proud smile on his face.

"Weren't you here a week ago? I saw your car." Towa asked, looking suspiciously at Satoshi.

"I was..." Satoshi replied.

"So you must've seen me as well then, why didn't you say something?"

"Because of what my dad did, Wakisaka! What if you said something about who I really am? How could I've known if the crowd would stay put?" Satoshi suddenly shouted.

Towa went quiet, as Satoshi breathed in to calm down and regain composure.

"If they knew who I was, and since you were here as I saw the name on the leaderboard, one wrong word would mean the end of me." Satoshi continued, exasperated.

"But we aren't a savage bunch of gangsters who would do something like that, it's not the Showa era anymore." Towa was a bit befuddled by Satoshi's view.

"How would I be able to know that? I don't know any of them, except you."

Towa couldn't really judge if Satoshi was honest, he never thought of him as particularly devious or anything, but he didn't know. Towa realized that maybe Satoshi had a point.

"So, you want to race the Probox?" Towa asked.

Satoshi didn't reply to Towa's question, he continued to look troubled, like he wasn't sure how to answer. It was weird because Towa thought that would be the thing that Satoshi wanted. Then, he had another thought.

"Do you want to race me?" Towa asked again, and Satoshi did change his expression.

"Considering you're now first on the leaderboard, yes." Satoshi replied truthfully.

Towa paused for a while, and Satoshi didn't say anything to him other than that, the request was clear enough.

"I don't think I can." Towa finally said, and the disappointment in Satoshi's expression was clear.

"Eh? Why?" Satoshi was a bit surprised, and quite annoyed, as Towa was the one who brought it up.

The fact was, Towa was suspicious of Satoshi, possibly because he was related to Takeshi. Although Towa wasn't going to admit to that in front of Satoshi.

"You want to become the best?" Towa started to explain, "You gotta beat 'Urasawa'."

"But didn't you beat him already? And I've already beaten him as well, if you didn't notice." Satoshi was more confused, because 'Urasawa' was only 3rd now.

Towa scoffed as soon as he heard that, and it upset Satoshi quite a bit.

"If you think you're good enough, he'll appear to challenge you."

Towa started walking back to the Probox, leaving Satoshi to stand there watching with confusion and frustration. Towa drove around the S2000 and started to drive the Probox down the Fruits Line.

Towa then saw that Satoshi tried to follow him again in the S2000, and he wasn't going to let him go without showing the true capability of the Probox.

Having others riding passengers meant Towa didn't want to experiment any risky maneuver, but now that he was alone, he could do whatever he wanted, as he's taking responsibility for himself.

Satoshi was a fast driver, but Towa never thought he was a particularly special one. There's no point in him trying to beat Mizuho Noda, as it was just impossible. The group of Geo Timer users have not met a single person who could truly beat Mizuho yet. A few people might mistook Towa for the perfect person to do so, but it clearly was not the case,

Still, Towa now prided himself as someone who could take on any challengers, if he's on the Fruits Line.

The first corner approached, Towa just lifted slightly, with a tap on the brake with his left foot to help the car slow down enough, the Probox then slid slightly, but controllable because Towa kept his foot pretty much pinned mid corner. Satoshi saw that it was impressive.

Towa remembered the line that Mizuho used, driving this exact car, and he knew there's no point in deviating from it as Mizuho was more familiar with it. It was different in places from what he thought would be ideal, but not so much that he couldn't do either way.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Battling other cars on the race track, it was not about the ideal line, because if you're following another car, you must react accordingly, that meant there's infinite possibility for a run to go. With variation in braking point, acceleration point, turn in, the position of the other car that might impede. It was different once you're leading, because you must only run the fastest line.

By the double corner section, right before the first acceleration zone, Towa gapped the S2000 to about one corner length. It was maybe 3 seconds. By the end of the second acceleration zone, the gap widened to 4 seconds.

Not long after, it was clear that there's no way Satoshi could follow Towa, let alone overtake him. Towa was right, there's no point for Satoshi to even challenge Mizuho Noda, if Towa could already lose him this easily.

The record of 2:16.91 by 'Urasawa' was a red herring, it was not the best time, it was merely a barrier of entrance to the genuinely decent racer. Anyone slower than that were amateurs who do it for fun.

People like Iori, Shige, Norio, Ikuo, Chris, even his friend Seiki, they all run this course because it's fun, and it's a challenge to improve the time all by themselves, which was obviously completely fine.

Satoshi might've beaten that barrier, but could he really improve further from this level?

To be honest. Unless it's actually fun, what's the point?

—

Wednesday Morning, after Towa got Sumire to work, he drove down to Tsuchiura going towards Noda PC.

The week with the Probox was a bit of a revelation. Towa knew different cars would have different characteristics, but he didn't expect that this junky little car would be so good once you understand the characteristics of it.

Weirdly enough, for such a crappy car, the word that Towa would describe the Probox of Mizuho Noda would be 'well made'.

Everything was just right, the steering wheel position was close enough so it was easy to turn with every steering angle needed on a run down the mountain, the seat position was low which meant the driver could feel the car as it adjusted its yaw so well. The engine was a peach, with an eagerness to rev up through the gear, which was so satisfying to use on hard attack, if not on the normal streets.

The suspension was also superb, despite being rock hard, it was not unsettling on the bumps and undulation of the road. The twitchy and nervous front end steering geometry was not an issue on the run, even if it was annoying on the normal road. The braking was more than enough for repeated usage without fading as well.

The only thing that was left in Towa's mind was what he would think once he got the Roadster back. He'll be finding out very soon.

Towa saw the white Roadster RF that he loved so much parked outside the PC shop, it was gleaming and clean, almost like it's been polished and waxed. It was so shiny that Towa was surprised by how good it looked. He never particularly cared for having the shiniest paint job, so it was definitely weird.

As Towa was reversing the Probox into the customer bay, Mizuho got out of the PC store and was waiting to debrief him already. Towa got out of the Probox, and waved to Mizuho.

"Good morning, Noda-san." Towa greeted, excited to talk to him.

"Good morning. How was it?" Mizuho asked.

"It was amazing, Noda-san, I never expected a car could be this good. A Probox at that." Towa replied with his first thought, which made Mizuho chuckle.

"It is still a Probox anyway. Not like it'll ever go faster even if I do anything more to it."

That comment from Mizuho surprised Towa.

"Is it reaching the limit of the platform?" Towa asked, eyes widened from surprise.

"Yes, it's at the absolute limit of what you can do. Unless I forgo yearly inspection and make it a pure track car. But what's the point of having a Probox you can't use on the road, huh?" Mizuho explained, which made Towa remember a thing he was wondering about.

"Hey, forgive me if you don't want to tell me, but why did you decide to build a Probox?"

Mizuho laughed.

"Well, I've had it since new, and there's no reason to replace it." Mizuho replied, sounding a bit disingenuous in Towa's opinion. It felt like a lie.

"But you must've spent like, what, 6 or 7 million yen on it? For a 300,000 yen car? Something's not adding up." Towa laid out his opinion, and Mizuho laughed again.

"I mean, a 6-7 million yen Probox that you yourself admit drives this good? Isn't it worth it?"

"For that price, surely you can get a cheap old Evo or something, and go much faster, right?"

Mizuho's expression changed as Towa was saying that. It was not a clear hostility, but he appeared to be irked by something in that sentence. Towa didn't even realize what he was saying wrong.

"Trust me, an Evo would be great, but I don't have a want for one." Mizuho replied, Towa thought the way he said it was weird.

"Why would you not want an Evo or an Impreza for the Fruits Line? I don't mean to question your expertise, Noda-san, I'm just genuinely curious." Towa continued to voice his opinion, but Mizuho didn't seem to want to indulge his curiosity.

Instead of answering, Mizuho walked down the steps and towards the Roadster.

"How about I give you a rundown on what I've done to your car instead." Mizuho said with a fake happy smile that Towa now knew.

"Sure, I guess." Towa said, conflicted as he felt he was left hanging, but at the same time excited to see his car, which apparently was changed somewhat?

That moment, Towa noticed a very subtle change that he hadn't seen before, and it was a bit of a surprise.

"Isn't the ride height higher than before?" Towa was now very curious, and was now looking at it from a different angle.

"Very good! You're sharp." Mizuho replied.

"Not only that, there's definitely more camber on the front and rear wheels. You've changed the suspension setting?" Towa continued.

"That I did." Mizuho confirmed it.

"Why is it higher though, isn't lower always meant lower center of gravity, leading to better handling?" Towa was a bit confused.

"You see, this is the mistake a lot of people make. The car should never be too low on the road because it would mess up the roll center."

"Roll what?"

Towa was very confused, he didn't understand at all what Mizuho was talking about.

"You don't have to understand it right now, but imagine the suspension arm is a lever right? As the car corners, the lever also leverages the body as it rolls. If the roll center is wrong, or more correctly, the roll couple, which is the relationship between the roll center and the center of gravity, like it's too high compared to the center of gravity, it can create something called jacking and lifts the whole car up. If it's too low, it causes too much weight transfer that you have to use the stiffness to counteract." Mizuho continued, a lot of it is using proper English pronunciation of the loanwords.

"You're using words, but they have no meaning." Towa understood NONE of what Mizuho had to say.

"Like I said, you don't have to understand it, just know that being low is great, but too low is no good." Mizuho continued, exasperated as he knew Towa wouldn't understand any of it.

"But I know camber, camber is good, right?" Towa changed subject before Mizuho rattled off more stuff he didn't understand.

"Yes, but no, more camber is good, but too much can be detrimental as well. As the car rolls, the tires lean on its sidewall and that is what causes the tire to grip the road, right? That combined with the tire compound. If you roll too much, you'd be wearing the tires on the sidewall, if you roll too little, you lose grip because the contact patch isn't fully utilized..."

Towa thought that it was not much better than before, and his head started to hurt.

"...Just go and drive it on the mountain and you'll see what's changed. I predict it'll be good 1-2 seconds faster just with the suspension change alone." Mizuho continued, sounding more and more annoyed by the minute.

"It'll be that much better?" Towa asked, as it seemed impossible, considering how good the Roadster was before.

"Trust me, it will be, especially as I've increased the chassis stiffness by installing braces, you can crouch down to see underneath, and the strut tower bar as well. There's also an undercarriage panel that reduces lift at the front."

Towa was extremely surprised and horrified hearing that, he couldn't believe what Mizuho did so he went to his knees to peek at the under of the Roadster, exactly as described, those parts were installed.

"How much were these?" Towa asked, his voice clearly shaken.

"Eh, don't worry about it. Pocket change. Think of it as a gift." Mizuho replied nonchalantly.

Pocket change?! What the hell?! A gift?!

"You know I'm not going to accept them without explanation, right? Why are you doing this?" Towa said with the straightest face he could muster right now, to show that he was being serious.

"Ehh, what? You're a nice guy. I consider you to be my friend. It's not much money..."

Towa guessed that the 'not much money' Mizuho mentioned, was probably around 350,000 yen including labor cost. Not including the suspension settings Mizuho did, which probably would be another 100,000 yen if done at a professional race car shop.

"Why?" Towa asked again.

"You've purchased quite a few things from the store, you also improved massively in a very short period of time. You deserved these mods." Mizuho continued to try and convince him.

At this point, Towa was very suspicious of Mizuho, and wondered if somehow these cash that were spent were gained via a less than legal manner, or if the parts were outright stolen. He genuinely felt terrified that he was ready to run right there and then, but couldn't.

"Look, Wakisaka-san, you're thinking too hard." Mizuho walked and patted Towa's shoulder. He was giggling like it was a big joke or something, and continued almost like he was reading his mind, "It's not stolen parts or anything, I've bought everything from Okuyama with a good discount, and my friend installed them for me. I drove to Yokohama for this, can you at least be gracious?"

"Look, Noda-san, I am gracious. I thank you from the deepest of my heart. But it still doesn't change the fact that you've spent more than 400,000 yen on a car that isn't yours." Towa explained his concern, which Mizuho seemed to understand, but didn't care.

"Like I said, pocket change."

"400,000 yen is pocket change?!"

"Nah it wasn't that much... and compared to the 8.5 millions I've put in that Probox, it is pocket change."

Towa thought, that's not the point! The Probox was Mizuho's own car! The Roadster was not!

Towa was too tired to argue further, so he elected to just accept whatever Mizuho wanted to give him.

"Just try it, and report back to me how you feel. If you want to pay me back, do that." Mizuho instructed, even if Towa was still flabbergasted as hell.

"Sure, Noda-san." Towa said, completely defeated.

—

Around 5 PM, Sumire saw a message that Towa was nearing her place of work now, and she was delighted to see that the car he was in today was the white Roadster RF, and not the pile of garbage Probox he's been driving for the past week. Sumire quickly got into it looking very cheerful.

"Phew! Your little baby is back finally, huh?" Sumire said, smiling and patting the dashboard of the Roadster affectionately.

"It has." Towa replied, relieved that Sumire would finally not be pissed off when riding home from work.

Just from driving it back home from Tsuchiura to Mito, there was no kidding, the car felt so much better on bumps and road undulation. The suspension which was so stiff beforehand was now much more compliant and made the whole car more comfortable. There was also less cowl shake, the feeling of the body shaking around the firewall, because there was bracing all around the place. This actually made the car ride with less annoying vibration on rough surfaces, somehow.

"Hey, isn't this car more comfortable than before?" Sumire was pleasantly surprised.

"You notice it?" Towa was also pleasantly surprised, if for a different reason.

"Well, I thought for a moment that I just got used to that piece of shit car you had for a week..." Sumire didn't hold back her thoughts.

"Well I'm glad you like it."

"There's less vibration as well, right? It feels more solid. The whole car."

Towa was even more surprised by that comment. That was a really good surprise, Towa didn't expect this to be the case, and didn't expect Sumire to notice the change in body rigidity either.

However, Towa also noticed that as the speed rose, the steering wheel was more nervous to road imperfections than before, sort of like the Probox, but not to the same extent. He guessed that it was set up in a similar way, both more camber, and more toe being out on the front to increase front grip. This was not perceptible to the passenger.

Until Towa got to try it on the Fruits Line, however, he couldn't really judge how the balance had changed.

That night, Towa couldn't resist testing the Roadster RF that had been modified according to Mizuho Noda's guideline. That's why after he thought Sumire was asleep, he snuck out of the house quietly to go to Mt. Tsukuba once again.

Towa got used to the Roadster handling again on the uphill south section. He predicted he would gel with the car pretty much immediately, and once he got to the starting point, it was around 1 AM.

Towa opened the Geo Timer application once again, and set up for a timed run. The countdown started, and away he went.

The first corner, Towa threw the car in at about the same speed as he did before, and he had a realization.

Despite no change to the tires, or the strut itself apart from new settings, the Roadster was not the same animal it was before.

The same steering input, trying to find the limit of grip, revealed that the front end was much sharper, and somehow, the rear end was not twitchy or nervous, even under braking. It was weird. Like the limit of grip was better.

This was very unusual, as Towa thought the tires were the same, and more bracing would mean more weight. Shouldn't this mean less corner grip limit? Why were the Roadster tires not squealing from understeer, and there's no feeling of too much yaw on the seat?

It felt like the Probox was. Just right, or if Towa were to use the exact same word, well made.

Every corner, Towa could send the Roadster in at higher speed than before, and the car did not feel unstable once. It was much more responsive, yet more stable, how could that be? Towa always thought those two contradict each other.

The Roadster handled well before, but right now, it was a completely different animal.

Just like Towa now was, after he got to learn with the masters of the craft.

Towa started using his left foot to brake on corners where he didn't have to change up or down, and he needed to stabilize the car. This meant he could brake at the point where he couldn't before, deeper into the corners. Which meant combined with the same acceleration point, there was less time loss.

Also, Towa was more comfortable with throwing the Roadster in at the corner entry at higher speed, with a slight oversteer already initiated, this was important for slower speed corner, as it was difficult for the tires to fight the yaw in order to change the trajectory of the car.

The Probox might've been amazing, and it taught Towa surprise new skills that he could utilize with any car, once he got back in the Roadster, it was obvious that the actual limit of this car, even with less grippy AD09 tires, was possibly higher than the Probox.

No, it was definitely higher, the Roadster could corner way quicker than the Probox ever did. With its ability to rotate on throttle, which meant corner exit was a doddle, and corner entry was so much superior as Towa didn't have to focus much on controlling too much rotation.

Towa might not be the same level driver as Mizuho, and unlikely ever will be, but with this much difference in the maximum potential of the car? Towa thought he had a chance to beat him fair and square...

Or maybe not, Towa didn't really care. He didn't want to beat Mizuho anymore, because it didn't matter to him. Battling for supremacy? What's this Chuunibyou ideal? It was meaningless. It's not like it's a championship for mountain road racers to get a prize or something.

Just enjoy the ride.

The car and the driver, together as one.