Guys, did you see the new record from 'TowaWaki39'? 2:13.98. He improved even more!

That's amazing!

Congrats! @TowaWaki39

Congrats!

Thanks, guys.

Hey, any of you guys want to meet up tonight? 9 PM?

I'll go. Oshito Famimart like usual?

I'll go as well.

+1

I don't think I can ever match a guy like Waki-san, but I'll try my hardest.

Dude, just lose weight, lol.

Why are you calling me fat, punk?

—

Norio was tending to the cucumber trees at the back of the agricultural field of his little farm area.

Coming back to being a farmer, there were many concerns, but in the end it was surprisingly rewarding, at least mentally. In fact, since he came back to manage the finances, the monetary reward seemed to be improving by a massive margin as well, despite the crops not being exactly different from when his mother did it.

It was not magic by any means, but good accounting really is something crucial for small, independent businesses.

Norio was not paying much attention to the road out front when a distinctive yellow car rolled by, and stopped quickly as it saw something. Norio had to look up from the noise, and was shocked to see what was there. He quickly left the agricultural field, and rushed to that car.

"Kisho!" Norio called out the name of a person he knew very well, and reconnected recently.

"Norio-chan!" The man called back from the car window.

It was a yellow Suzuki Swift Sport, the same model as Norio's, but much older. It was the ZC31S model, the second generation Swift Sport, while Norio's was the ZC33S, the fourth generation.

"What brought you here? You should've told me in advance so I can prepare." Norio peered through the window, he was very glad to see Kisho.

"Oh, I'm just in town for a few days. I'm at a conference in Tsukuba city so I thought I'd drop by." Kisho replied.

They might've been away from each other for years, but once Norio reached out and met again a few months back, it was clear that their bond was too strong for them to completely forget each other.

"You got the Banana Mk.1 fixed? Incredible." Norio was very cheerful to see his old car as well.

"Yeah, it was not easy, but I managed it because I got a raise, remember?" Kisho replied.

"Go park it right there."

Norio pointed out to the driveway of his house, which Kisho then promptly drove in and parked right next to Norio's ZC33S Swift and Norio's mother Carry. It was a fleet of small and cheerful Suzuki cars, the favorite of a practical family like the Hattori.

"It looks really good." Norio noted again how his old Swift was, and it made Kisho grinned a bit.

"Is it the only thing that looks good?" Kisho asked, teasingly.

"Haha, you look good as well." Norio smiled.

As always, Norio thought, Kisho was dressed very sharp, he was wearing tight fitting trousers, a well pressed modern style white shirt that also fit well with the blue tie. Norio also knew that Kisho would wear his always stylish suit that was hung on the back handle of the Swift right now and he'd look really good.

"How have you been though?" Norio asked.

"It's been great, Norio, how have you been?" Kisho asked back.

"Eh, the money's still so-so, but the work is very rewarding."

"I was so worried when you said you were going back to farming, but it seemed you were meant to be doing such work anyway."

"If there's no grant from the government, we're in the red, but let's not think about that too hard, right? Haha."

"Right."

Norio then invited Kisho into the house, and Norio's mother was very surprised to see a friend of his there.

"Oh, hello! You didn't tell me there would be a friend visiting." Norio's mother said, very pleasantly surprised.

"Good morning, Hattori-san!" Kisho greeted Norio's mom.

"This is Kisho, mom. My friend from Shizuoka." Norio introduced Kisho.

"What are you doing in Ibaraki, then?" She asked.

"I'm here for a science conference, Hattori-san. I work for Nakazato Pharmaceutical." Kisho replied.

"That's really good!"

Norio's mom was just happy to see that Norio had any friends, so she was more cheerful than usual.

"Have you eaten anything?" Norio asked Kisho, who shook his head.

"I'll have to go to the conference in about half an hour, I'll just eat there." Kisho replied.

"Have you finished checking the cucumbers, Norio-chan?" His mom asked, and Norio had a realization.

"Oh shoot, I forgot."

Norio was about to get up, when his mother stopped him.

"Your friend here has places to go, I'll do it for you." His mom said.

"Thanks, mom."

Norio's mother walked out of the house to finish the work Norio left, she was willing to do it as it was a really unusual occurrence.

"Is the president still being a pain?" Norio asked Kisho.

"Eh, it's part of the job," Kisho dismissed the concern, "and the extra pay meant I could fix your car as well, how's that for a perk?"

"I thought you'd scrap it long ago. I thought it was a goner."

"Well, I promise you I'd fix it, didn't I? It just took 5 years to do."

Norio had always liked this determination of Kisho.

Norio then had an idea.

"Hey, are you free tonight?" Norio asked with a knowing face.

"If you're inviting me to some place, you know I wouldn't decline, right?" Kisho replied.

"Well, I'll take that as a yes, then?"

"Yeah. Of course!"

"I'll send you the location tonight then. Would around 9 or 9.30 PM be fine?"

"For sure."

That night at Oshito Family Mart, Kisho was the first one to arrive at around 9 PM, no cars obviously belonged to a racer, so he was slightly worried, even if he knew Norio was a man of his word.

Norio said there would be a surprise waiting for Kisho, so he was really looking forward to whatever Norio was planning.

The Norio that Kisho knew from Shizuoka might've been a little awkward and not easy to show his emotion, but he was always a great guy to hang around with, there's a wisdom way beyond his years hidden inside, and that's why Kisho liked him so much.

They met on the mountain roads, and somehow this relationship blossomed into something else entirely, and even if it's long over, they both still remembered it fondly. Once Kisho saw that the meeting place was near Mt. Tsukuba, he knew, it was something that brought them together that Norio was planning.

Norio finally drove his Swift Sport into the parking lot, and there was another car following him in a convoy. Kisho saw that it was a red Honda Civic FN2, a pretty unusual car in his eyes. Both cars parked beside him so he knew that car definitely belonged to a friend, it was a lot like when they met up other racers to drive on the Shizuoka Prefectural Route 359.

Norio got out of the car, seeing Kisho was smiling and eager to meet whoever he brought together tonight and was happy to see this always sunny young man once again.

Norio turned and looked at Iori knowingly, and they both walked to Kisho.

"Good evening!" Kisho greeted Norio.

"Good evening, Kisho." Norio replied. He gestured his hand towards Iori, "This is Iori."

"Hi, Kisho-san." Iori waved and smiled at Kisho, who did the same.

At that moment, another car turned up at the same parking lot. It was the blue ZN8 BRZ of Shigehiro Yamamoto.

"Ah, that's Yamamoto." Iori said, as all looked at the BRZ, "right, darling?"

Iori linked her arm with Norio's, and got really close to him, which confused Kisho so much it seemed like his brain completely stopped working. Not only that, Shige who'd just walked over was also similarly confused, but for a completely different reason.

"Huh?" Shigehiro uttered, staring at the group in confusion. All of them turned around and thought it was amusing the way Shige looked at them.

"What?" Iori asked, completely straight-faced.

"Why are you that close together?" Shige asked back, still very confused.

At this point, Kisho realized what was going on, and blurted out laughing, which made Norio couldn't hold his laughter in either.

"You got me, Norio-chan!" Kisho still couldn't stop laughing, "I actually believed it for a minute."

"What is going on?" Shige still didn't realize it.

"It's a joke, Yamamoto-san." Iori replied, finally releasing her grip from Norio.

"But what is funny about it?"

Once Shige asked that, Norio and Iori turned and looked at each other, wondering what's the best course of action, while Kisho was still laughing.

"Yamamoto-san, this man here is Kisho," Norio waved Shige to Kisho to introduce them, "and this guy is Yamamoto-san."

"Nice to meet you." Kisho held his hand out for Shige, who was still befuddled by the situation.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Well, nice to meet you." Shige shook Kisho's hand.

"You're pretty cute." Kisho said under his breath and Shige couldn't hear it well.

"Say again?"

Then, more and more cars started rolling into the parking lot, all of them from the Geo Timer discord group.

In total, there were 12 cars that came tonight, and it filled the parking lot of this Family Mart so completely, it amazed Kisho so much as how lively the racer scene in Ibaraki was. It was completely different to one in Shizuoka, where a group would have 3-4 members at most.

The conversations were civil, everyone was so eager to share their knowledge and opinions about running the Fruits Line in such a deep, enthusiastic manner. Everyone had the same goal, and that was to have fun. The atmosphere was bright and cheery.

Norio was socializing, when he noticed another car that came into the parking lot, and it was a car he'd seen before, but he knew was not in the Discord group. It was the mysterious silver Honda S2000 that he saw more than a week back and stuck in his mind all this time.

The S2000 seemed a bit confused seeing all these cars that gathered, but eventually it parked close to the group. Norio saw the man stepping out and thought it was unusual that he was wearing a Honda cap.

The group continued to talk for a while, and that man slowly got to conversing as well, it seemed none of the people there knew who he was, and it got to the point where the guy was now approaching Norio, Kisho, Shige and Iori's circle.

"Hey, I haven't seen you before. Which one are yours?" Iori asked that tall man with a friendly smile, there were another 2-3 people from the group in the circle.

"Ah, I'm... Sato." The tall man answered.

"What username do you use on the leaderboard?" Another guy asked 'Sato'.

"It's 'Inazuma'."

That was when many in the group gasped, as they were shocked it was another racer who'd beaten 'Urasawa' after Towa Wakisaka.

Norio couldn't take a clear look when he first noticed 'Sato' or as he revealed 'Inazuma' from a way away, but once he got closer, and he could look at his face clearly, Norio thought that he looked familiar.

The friendly face Norio kept up while suspicious was gone in a flash, instead the clear expression of contempt set in. He didn't say anything yet, as 'Sato' had a nice conversation with the rest of the group.

Kisho was the only one who noticed that Norio was acting abnormal, something was in his mind, but he didn't want to say it, so Kisho pulled Norio's sleeve to tell him to get away from the group, but Norio didn't.

Finally, Norio couldn't hold it anymore, as 'Sato' was getting comfortable with the group.

"'Sato', huh?" Norio said in a clear hostile tone, which made the entire group turn at him confused.

"What's wrong, Hattori-san?" Iori was confused, as was the whole group.

At that point, Satoshi knew the jig was up.

"Sato, as in, Satoshi?..." Norio then scoffed, but he didn't clarify further.

Most of the group were wondering what the hell was going on with Norio.

"Hey, Hattori-san, are you okay?" Iori started saying, looking concerned as she knew Norio could be emotional.

"Yamada-san, I am totally fine..." Norio quickly reassured Iori, but it wasn't effective.

Then Norio turned back to Satoshi, giving him a death glare.

"I know who you are, Sawatari." Norio said, and the group had a realization.

"Wait, Sawatari?" Some said.

"Satoshi Sawatari? As in, NTTG Sawatari Group?" Others added.

The whole group was murmuring, but with curiosity more than hostility, the only person who was openly hostile towards Satoshi was Norio.

"Hey, Hattori-san," Iori shuffled to Norio's side, and put her hand on his shoulder, "we know what the family did, but it doesn't mean this guy was involved, right?"

"People like them are snakes, all of them are. You don't know what they're capable of."

Iori and Shige were concerned, while the whole group was not on Norio's side either. Iori was the only one who could make the excuse for Norio being unstable, but the others? They didn't know that. Iori didn't know Norio had a beef with the Sawatari more than the rumor that they wanted to close the Fruits Line either.

Norio might've been more happy, at least outwardly, but it was clear he was still not completely fine mentally.

"Hey, Norio, calm down." Kisho pulled Norio's arm and said. Kisho wanted Norio to just walk away and not cause more ruckus.

"You guys are all cheats. Cheats and liars."

Once Norio finished his tirade, he expected someone to at least back him up, but none did. It made him completely deflated from embarrassment and disappointment.

Norio could only walk away in a huff, and it made him look worse.

The rest of the group felt a bit uncomfortable with how Norio acted, but they didn't care as he was already gone, and continued the conversation a bit awkwardly. They didn't care who Satoshi Sawatari was, if he was acting cool like he was, none of them cared.

After a while, Norio went and sat in his car only because Kisho urged him not to ruin the atmosphere, he was the only person who Norio would listen to at the moment, only because Kisho was someone he truly trust.

"Who is this Sawatari person anyway?" Kisho asked, even if it was still a touchy subject.

"That piece of shit? You know my parent's farm, right? The one I came back for. My mother's been selling stuff to them for decades, and they've been low balling her the entire time." Norio quickly rattled off his true gripe with Satoshi.

"Eh? To him directly?" Kisho was confused.

"No, not to him. This guy's only a general manager or something for North Tochigi Trading Group. The main HQ moved to Utsunomiya if I recall correctly. Satoshi is the son of the Nasushiobara branch which started it."

"Ehhhh? But how did they wrong you?"

"Cucumbers."

"Cucumbers?" Kisho was wondering, as it seemed cryptic.

"Cucumbers sell for about 250 yen per kilo wholesale during late Spring, early Summer, right? So I had a shipment that my mother left, about 400 kilograms. I of course went to the Mito branch, because we've had relations for years, right? They offered 150 per kilogram."

"Haaah?! That's really low, isn't it?" Kisho exaggerated being shocked.

"It's the same with every crop we sell. Because my father was not exactly sociable, he didn't have a lot of alliances in the business to confer to, and he didn't know how to use the internet either. Once my mother took over, she thought nothing of it and kept the same buyers group."

Kisho understood Norio more now, even if he still thought it was wrong for Norio to act like that.

"They are thieves, fucking thieves, nothing more than that. A veneer of respectability couldn't hide the shit these people truly are." Norio was even angrier once he got to recall the experience with the Sawatari clan.

Kisho did not reply, he just sat there on the passenger seat, leaving Norio to calm down. He knew this was not normal, Norio never had these issues when they were together.

The awkward quietness on Kisho's part was not lost on Norio, he realized at this point that it may have been wrong for him to directly confront Satoshi, but at the same time, he felt it was absolutely necessary to set the precedent that he did not trust the guy at all.

Then, Iori walked over to the Norio's Swift that both were sitting in, and knocked on the window.

"Can I come in?" Iori asked once Norio rolled the window down, he nodded.

Iori opened the door, stepped inside and sat on the backseat.

"Sorry, Yamada-san, I was out of order." Norio quickly apologized, it seemed that he had calmed down quite a lot.

"No, I understand why you did it." Iori replied, but Norio didn't know if she was just being nice.

"I shouldn't have confronted him directly, even if the beef with him I had was legit." Norio repeated his sentiment, but Iori wasn't having it.

"You recognize him by face, what did he do, really?"

Iori's question made Norio realize why she was now sitting with them in the car, she knew there was more to it than the Fruits Line fiasco.

Norio repeated the story he told to Kisho just a minute before, although a bit calmer. Iori now had the whole picture and understood Norio more now.

"Well, we can't stop anyone from coming to the meets, but if you feel uncomfortable I don't see any reason you have to be polite. It's not a working world, it's a hobbyist world." Iori offered her opinion, but Norio still felt bad about it.

Then, the group sat there in awkward silence, watching the group of racers continue their conversation, almost without any signs of the altercation before.

"How did you guys meet anyway?" Kisho was curious, so he asked to break the silence.

"Oh, it was on the mountain, right?" Iori tried to recall, "I was driving and he just turned up."

"I haven't told Kisho about Geo Timer yet though, no one mentioned that." Norio added.

"Yeah, there's this application that allows you to time your runs on the Tsukuba Fruits Line, using GPS. There's a leaderboard where the record is stored of how well you're doing." Iori then continued as Norio mentioned.

"That sounds so cool! But it only works for a single road huh..." Kisho said excitedly.

"Yep, the Fruits Line." Norio pointed in the general direction of Tsukuba Mountain.

Kisho turned and looked at Norio, whose return gaze knew what Kisho really wanted tonight. Iori couldn't help but be intrigued by the relationship of these two guys. Norio told her they used to be together, but they amicably went separate ways 5 years ago. They were definitely still good friends though, from what Iori was seeing.

"Why not let Norio drive you up there first, so you can learn the peculiarities of the course." Iori suggested, and both Kisho and Norio liked it.

"Definitely, yes." Kisho replied eagerly.

"But I'm..."

Norio was reluctant, because he had not been able to run the Fruits Line without getting scared recently, but once he saw how much Kisho wanted it, he couldn't really decline.

"Alright. One run?" Norio conceded, and it made both Kisho and Iori smile.

"I'll go tell the others, you can just go up there first as a check." Iori said to Norio, before she opened the door and got out of the Swift.

Norio started driving away from the parking lot, and headed up the mountain with Kisho in the passenger seat. He was still nervous about his mental state, but didn't want to let Kisho down either.

On the south section, Norio warmed the tires up, but it didn't require much as the temperature rose a lot recently, the tires were grippy pretty much by halfway point, and care must be taken to not overheat. Not long after, he got underneath the flower park sign which marked the start.

Norio then pulled out his phone, and Kisho was intrigued by the application.

"So, I put it on the dashboard so I can see right? It does more than just timekeep. If there's a stationary car on the track, it'd warn you, the same with a slowed car. Also it warns us of closed roads and other obstacles. I'm sure if there's a landslide it'd probably tell us as well." Norio explained.

Kisho didn't reply, he was only looking at the application and wondered how it works, all the information relay to the racers, it was far more professional sounding than a simple application would be.

"But why?" Kisho blurted out, as he was very confused about one thing.

"Why what?" Norio asked back.

"Why would someone create something like this? It must've taken a lot of work, and there's no monetary incentive to do so as there's no advertising or anything. Wait, it's a free app, right?"

"Yeah, it's free."

"So why did the creator make something like this? There's no reason to do so at all."

Norio couldn't answer. He didn't know. No one except for Mizuho Noda knew.

"I must admit though if there's something like this back for the roads back in Shizuoka, the racer community would be amazing..." Kisho mused, still very interested in how the app works.

"I agree..." Norio replied with a nod, before continuing, "...Are you ready?"

"As ready as I can be."

Once Norio got the confirmation, he pressed the button for the countdown to start, and set off in a run on the Tsukuba Fruits Line once more.

Kisho always had full confidence in Norio's driving ability, and Norio never wanted to disappoint him either. In fact, as when they met, Kisho was about 4-5 years younger than Norio was, so it was Norio who taught a lot of techniques to Kisho when he was new to the mountain roads.

Norio worries went away immediately once Kisho was beside him again, he could focus on the road, and less on the possibility of the things going wrong.

This activity will always be risky, it'll always be dangerous, no matter how well you prepared, you never knew what's going to happen. Tires failure, engine failure, drivers fatigue, tourist drivers who didn't know road rules, written or otherwise.

If one could accept that and take the precaution to mitigate that risk, like not over driving the car, always be mindful of the surroundings, and never take safety for granted. That ought to be good enough, right?

The most important thing was to always take responsibility for your actions. If you crash, don't blame anyone else, you were controlling the car, not the passenger, not the otherworldly beings. If you can accept that you have to take responsibility, for you, or the passenger, then there is no unmitigated risk.

That run with Kisho riding passengers might not have been the fastest Norio ever did, but it was the one he needed. It was the one that gave him clarity. The reason why he liked running the mountain roads so much.

It's not just the feeling of danger, or the accomplishment for the record. It was the relationship he had with others who had the same interests, and the same goal. People like Iori or Shige. Norio had always been wondering how he got so close to them. It was no different from when he first met Kisho, or any other friends he had from Shizuoka.

The relationship he had with Kisho was unique, it was not something that he wished to replicate with the people within Ibaraki racers group, lightning never strikes twice. The only part that was left now though, that was something he already did make up for, even if it took 5 years to do.

There might be some road bumps, there might be some troubles, but it'll go away eventually.

At least, Norio now believed that it will.

The runners all did their runs for a few hours, and went home once they felt tired. All except for Norio and Kisho, who were the only two left in the Family Mart parking lot. Both were smoking their own preferred cigarettes as they leaned on their own Swift Sport.

"When are you going back to Shizuoka?" Norio asked Kisho.

"Oh, tomorrow." Kisho replied.

"Why don't you stay longer, over the weekend as well?" Norio was curious.

"Oh well. You know..." Kisho was being coy, and Norio knew why.

"Is it the Yamaguchi guy you told me about?" Norio asked about Kisho's current partner .

"Yeah..." Kisho nodded, "you know, I don't want you to be jealous."

"Don't worry! I'm not." Norio reassured Kisho, who looked troubled.

"You never know with this sort of thing..."

"Is he at least nice though?"

"Oh, he is the best." Kisho chuckled as he replied, "Nothing against you, mind."

"Haha!" Norio was bemused, "richer, nicer, better looking, less judgmental..."

Norio was joking, but Kisho looked troubled as he said that, so Norio was now concerned. He had a sense of what's going on in Kisho's mind.

"I don't know if it's going to last..." Kisho said, sounding quite hopeless.

"Eh, why?" Norio was concerned.

"Recently, his parents set him up on a date. You know. He's the son of a relatively successful business, it's hardly surprising, right?..." Kisho explained, even if he didn't really want to, "It's just. I knew from the start it could never be something we can be open about anyway. It's suffocating."

Those words were also piercing through Norio's heart, but he kept his composure in order to support his close friend.

"To keep up appearances, huh..." Norio said, with a sadness in his voice.

Kisho turned and looked at Norio, once he realized that he pushed this burden on him, he laughed it away to try making the situation less gloomy.

"Hey, don't worry about it, alright? I'll be fine..." Kisho tried to hide his feelings, but Norio wasn't buying it.

"You know I once told you, if there's one thing in this world I could wish for, it's to never see you being unhappy, right?" Norio said, reminiscing.

"Yeah, does that offer still stand? Haha. Joking of course." Kisho tried to sound like he's teasing, but deep down he was just hurting, as Norio could clearly see.

"I mean, I still don't wish to see you unhappy..."

Kisho turned to look at Norio, and had a sad realization.

Kisho had always been the one with troubles, he always confided it with Norio, but once he was gone, others had to take his place. It was fine for him, eventually. But he never really knew, or thought about how Norio felt.

Kisho got over it pretty quickly, but he didn't know if Norio did the same.

"I don't want to see you sad either, Norio-chan."

Norio scoffed a little bit, not at Kisho, but with the thought that those words came too late, far, far too late.

"You should go have some rest. Don't you have work tomorrow morning?" Norio asked, and Kisho had a realization as he looked at his watch.

"Oh shit, you're right..." Kisho replied, seeing that it was 1 AM.

"Well, keep in touch, alright? If there's anything that troubled you, don't hesitate to tell me."

"That goes for you as well, Norio-chan..." Kisho smiled, "You don't have to always keep your trouble to yourself."

"I guess..."