Friday Evening, Ryoji finally told the truth to his friends that he'll be transferring school before the summer break.

Most of them were devastated, of course, including Akira. Ippei meanwhile, had the time to brace for this so he didn't appear to be too affected by it.

That, of course, was not true. Ippei was just as devastated as the rest of Ryoji's circle of friends.

They all decided they would give Ryoji one final send-off, so they all chipped in for a meal for Ryoji, as final gratitude for their times together. In the end, they selected the chain Shabu Shabu place near the school, as that's all the budget was enough for.

There were 6 friends, all of them in the computer club, including Ippei and Akira, then a friend asked if he could bring his girlfriend with him, and the group was okay with that.

"Hey, Ippei, wouldn't you invite your girlfriend as well?" Another friend suggested, which made Ippei realize that there was no reason not to. So he invited Sachiko as well, and she accepted.

At the table, the atmosphere was surprisingly cheerful and happy, even Ryoji appeared to be thankful for all of them who could be with him till the end. They all promised to keep in touch even after Ryoji moved away, which was going to be soon. Perhaps even before the summer break.

Somehow, Ippei couldn't have the same happy, positive thoughts as his friends. Maybe it's because he knew the actual situation that Ryoji was in.

Somehow, Ippei thought there's no way Ryoji wouldn't disappear from the face of this earth once he moved to Yamanashi. Ippei was a realist, and he knew that the distance was far too much for them to actually stay connected.

That made Ippei look pained and troubled the entire meal, both Sachiko and Akira could see that, and Ryoji didn't want to admit it even if he could see as well.

At the end of the meal, all the friends gathered in front of the restaurant, and they had some parting gifts for Ryoji that they all chipped in.

"Thank you, everyone." Ryoji nearly couldn't hold his tears as he said.

"Hey, everything will be alright, right?" Some friends told Ryoji.

"Yeah, you be as you are, and I'm sure you'll find new friends quickly there as well." Another friends added.

After the meal, the group went home each separate way. Ryoji was picked up by his grandfather as always, while Akira got on his bike to ride away. Ippei and Sachiko took the same bus.

All good things come to an end, no matter how or why, that's the mantra Ippei kept repeating in his head as he saw Ryoji for, who knows if this was actually going to be, the last time.

"Hey, Ippei, have you decided on going somewhere this weekend? Now that your bike is working correctly." Sachiko asked, the bus didn't have that many passengers so they could talk.

"I don't know, do you want to go anywhere in particular?" Ippei threw that question back to Sachiko.

"Actually..." Sachiko said, smiling a bit sheepish, "I'm going to Nikko with my parents."

"Oh." Ippei was a bit disappointed.

"Sorry for not telling you earlier, they just told me this morning. It's a big discount on the accommodation, apparently."

"No, it's fine." Ippei replied, trying to reassure her, "I'll probably stay home to be honest."

"Huh, I thought you'd want to go on a road trip."

"It's you who will be on a road trip." Ippei chuckled lightly. Remembering the green Stepwgn which he was sure the Kinoshita family would be taking on to Nikko, despite it being so old.

"That's right."

The bus was reaching Ippei's stop soon, and he was ready to stand up to get off it, when Sachiko pulled on his sleeve once again, and kissed him on the cheek like she did before.

Despite this being the second time Sachiko did it, Ippei still nearly fell over again. However, instead of letting it go this time, he turned to look at Sachiko, who was giggling shyly, and did the same.

Ippei's heart nearly exploded when he decided he'd do that, and Sachiko was equally fluttery. She looked shocked, which to Ippei was weird because she STARTED IT.

Ippei waved goodbye, before he got off the bus at his stop. He was nearly skipping the entire way home.

Mizuho already closed the shop by the time Ippei arrived, it was 7.30 PM. So Ippei had to walk through the darkened room of the PC shop to the living room.

"I'm home." Ippei announced.

Mizuho was there, in front of the television, watching a Hololive stream that he didn't recognize, but it wasn't Oozora Subaru.

What caught Ippei's attention though, was that the streamer was a pink princess looking character playing an electone. Practicing a HoneyWorks song Kawaikute Gomen.

"Ah, uh huh." Mizuho didn't seem interested, focusing on the television.

"Who's that?" Ippei suddenly asked.

"Huh?..." Mizuho was very surprised, as Ippei never was interested in Vtuber, "This is Himemori Luna."

"She's playing an Electone? Looks like an ELC-02"

"That's what's in your room, right?" Mizuho asked.

Ippei put his bag down, and was now sitting at the table as well, intrigued by what his father was watching.

"No, mine's an 01X. The ELC-02 is smaller but much newer. Less key but more features." Ippei explained.

"Haaaa..." Mizuho exclaimed, "She's pretty cute, though, isn't she?"

"I guess..." Ippei was a bit confused still, so he didn't give much of an answer.

"I never really liked her voice, but I gotta admit, the stream is pretty captivating..." Mizuho continued, not looking at his son.

The two sat there for a solid 20 minutes, not talking to each other, only focusing on the stream. Before Ippei was yawning so much from tiredness he decided to get up and take a bath.

Mizuho kept watching Himemori Luna stream until Oozora Subaru started streaming a concurrent watch of Fullmetal Alchemist at 9 PM.

Ippei was in the bath upstairs for a while, and he couldn't stop thinking about the stream he just watched with his dad for a bit. As a person who plays Electone, he was curious about this one streamer that had the same interest as he was.

Once Ippei got out of the bath, he went into his bedroom, and turned on his computer to check if Himemori Luna was still streaming. Turns out that she was. So he kept the stream on, even if he wasn't paying full attention. Then she kept playing for 5 hours, 4 of which Ippei got to watch. After it turned into a chatting stream he closed the tab.

Ippei didn't pay attention when he turned off the computer because it didn't do so properly.

—

The next morning, Ippei woke up at around 9 AM because he went to bed late last night playing games, and as it was Saturday he was lazing around in his bed for a while, before he got out of it to do his morning routine.

Then Ippei was going to play a game, he wanted to continue playing indie souls-like 'Another Crab's Treasure' that he bought recently on a friend's recommendation, so he turned on his computer again.

Except, it didn't turn on. Weird. It had never done this before.

Ippei checked the power plug, and all seemed to be fine. Yet, there's no response even when he pushed the power button. A quick diagnosis revealed nothing obvious.

Ippei was kind of miffed, but it was not the end of the world. He just walked downstairs and reported to his father so the person who built the whole rig could fix it, Ippei wasn't going to do it himself, admittedly out of spite.

"Dad." Ippei called as he opened the door to the shop

"Uh, right, uh huh..."

Turns out Mizuho was on the phone at the moment, so Ippei had to wait to report to his dad.

"It's not working at all? Okay, Tamaki-san, I'll be there in maybe 10 minutes."

Mizuho finished the phone call, and Ippei already knew it was an onsite repair call, but Mizuho turned around and saw Ippei there already.

"What is it?" Mizuho asked.

"Eh, my computer doesn't boot." Ippei replied anyway, even if he was expecting to have to deal with it himself.

"Is it urgent?" Mizuho continued, and Ippei shook his head.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Not needed immediately, no." Ippei replied honestly.

"I need to go and help Tamaki-san for about... half an hour? If you could wait I'll look at it for you."

Ippei stopped and considered for a moment, he wanted to play that game, but it's not like Mizuho will be away for so long that he'll likely be able to diagnose it before he came back, so Ippei was really considering just waiting for his dad to come back.

"Yeah, sure." Ippei finally relented.

"Just use my laptop for now, it's on my bedroom desk." Mizuho replied, then he stood up pretty quickly.

"Okay, thanks, dad."

Ippei went back to the living room, and Mizuho went out of the shop to do the on-site repair he was called for. Tamaki-san was an old man living very close by, so Ippei didn't expect it would be taking long, as Mizuho said.

Ippei walked back upstairs, he heard the sound of the Probox driving away not long after.

The bedroom of Mizuho was just the opposite of Ippei's on the second floor, Ippei never got to access it often, but it's not a secret place that he's not allowed in or anything.

Mizuho's bedroom was chock full of things, miniature cars, plushies, figurines, anime merch dating back from at least the mid 90's. It was a bigger room than Ippei's bedroom, but didn't feel that way because it was so rammed full of stuff.

There was also a sim rig there. A device for simulation driving on a computer. Mizuho bought this set recently as he got rid of the previous set he had for many years. Strasse Speed Master RF cockpit, Moza R16 wheelbase, Heusinkveld dedicated handbrake, shifter, and custom pedal set, the whole nine yards. It's also connected to a decent computer and triple screen setup.

Ippei didn't know how much that thing cost, but he knew he didn't want to touch it, in case he broke something. Ippei just walked to the desk, grabbed the laptop that Mizuho always used, and brought it to his room.

Ippei wouldn't be able to play the games he wanted, but he's willing to borrow his father's account to play something else. There's like almost literally a thousand games in there and there's always new additions. With a few always downloaded on the laptop because Mizuho like bringing this thing outside the house.

It's ASUS ROG Strix series, and Ippei knew it cost 250,000 yen, so it's not like he's not nervous about hoisting this thing around even in the house.

Turning it on, Ippei saw the wallpaper was, of course, Oozora Subaru. With a whole lot of shit on the desktop screen. Unlike Ippei, Mizuho was always disorganized with this sort of stuff.

Then, Ippei was drawn to some files on the desktop. It was not nefarious stuff or anything, it was files very typical for a small business.

Noda PC Shop Accounting Spreadsheet for June 2024, the name of the file wasn't labeled such and such, but Ippei knew what it was.

On one hand, Ippei didn't want to look, as he felt it was something his father never mentioned to him, but on the other hand, Ippei was curious to see the financial situation of the store.

The grim reality of what happened to Ryoji was still fresh in Ippei's mind, even if he knew the situation of each household would never be the same, it still made him concerned for his own situation.

That exact concern, overruled any thoughts he had about his father's privacy, Ippei also realized that as he was in the family, this sort of stuff should not be included in the concern about privacy anyway.

After hesitating for quite a while, Ippei finally clicked on the spreadsheet. Very nervous.

Once it was actually opened, somehow, Ippei was more alarmed. A lot more.

Ippei kept opening the accounting files, dating back for a few months at first, but what he saw kept him going back, and back, and back, eventually he got to about 4 years back.

To Ippei, the situation was bad, really bad.

The shop had not been profitable, in fact, it was a net loss for more than 4 years, at least, Ippei didn't know how long it's been unprofitable, but sure it was a lot longer than 4 years he had the courage to check.

Seeing all of that, Ippei closed the laptop, and put it back on his father's desk. He went and laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling with a lot of thoughts in his mind, most of it was of concern and fear.

Ippei didn't know how long he lay there, until there was a knock on his bedroom door.

"I'm home already, can I come in?" Mizuho called, and Ippei had to act like nothing happened.

Ippei got up and opened the door, his father seemed surprised.

"You didn't take the laptop, did you sort it out yourself?" Mizuho noticed and asked, Ippei shook his head.

"I was on my phone." Ippei replied, trying to hide his feelings.

"You kids and the phone, haahhh..." Mizuho walked in, "I'll hoist it downstairs, have you unplugged everything?"

"Ehhh... not yet."

Mizuho sighed, he didn't say anything but then went to the table and around the back of the computer case, to unplug everything from the back before he could pick the tower up.

"What's wrong with it anyway?" Mizuho inquired.

"Pushing the power button doesn't do anything." Ippei answered.

"Could be the PSU. I'll see what I have in the shop."

"Uh, do I have to buy it with my allowance?"

That question stopped Mizuho, he turned around and stared at Ippei in utter confusion.

"Why would you need to pay?" Mizuho asked, completely befuddled.

"Well, you know... on principle." Ippei replied.

Of course, Ippei couldn't admit to his father that the reason was he knew the financial situation of the PC shop was grim as hell, and even taking a cheap PSU from it concerned Ippei so much.

"Eh, don't worry about it, I'm sure there's some good second hand stuff I don't use anymore lying around. I'll have this back to you in a jiffy."

Mizuho didn't say anything further than that, then he picked the PC up and away from Ippei's room.

Ippei didn't follow, as he had to lie back down on his bed to consider what the situation really was.

It's fucking terrifying, but Ippei couldn't do anything to solve it.

His father was not acting strange about it either, it was weird. He always seemed to have cash on hand to purchase anything he wanted. It was really weird.

What's going on?

Somehow, that terrified Ippei even more, as he knew Ryoji was pretty much the same, he never acted unusually about the financial situation of his family until it was far too late.

Maybe it's not just Ryoji that was having a problem, and that thought made Ippei extremely in doubt of his future.

—

It was 2 AM Saturday, and all of the runners who've gathered on Friday night had gone home by midnight. Tsukuba Mountain welcomed its serenity once again.

That was, until a mysterious car turned up to the starting point of the Fruits Line time attack, using the Geo Timer Application. It was a newly registered account, and the driver had not driven it before.

The small hatchback body was black on black wheels, in the night apart from the lights there's not much that could be seen with human's eyes of its body, but it was distinctive. This particular model had been a fearsome competitor everywhere in the world. Heralded as a return to form for one of the largest car manufacturers in the world.

A black Toyota GR Yaris RZ High Performance.

Even from the outside, it was clear that this GR Yaris was tweaked in every single aspect, the wheels and tires, body kits and exhaust. The number plate indicated that it was from Maebashi, which was a 2 hour drive to Ibaraki.

The 3-cylinder engine had a weird rhythm compared to a more normal high performance engine, it was incredibly unique. The driver revved it up preparing for a run and was excited to see this new course that a friend recommended.

He had a vague idea of the course layout, as he'd practice on a simulation for a bit. Weirdly enough, the Fruits Line had a pretty good representation available as a mod for Assetto Corsa, but the driver didn't expect it to be that accurate, it was merely good enough to have an idea of where it's going.

The Yaris then launched with a split second of wheelspin, but the all-wheel-drive system hooked the tires up to the tarmac very quickly and effectively.

On this first run, the driver was only observing the difference between the simulation and the real course. Turns out that the distance was close enough, but the real course was much narrower and with less margin for error. The road was also much more bumpy, and those cannot be finely replicated due to hardware limitation. Another thing he had to keep in mind was that there was no reset button, if he crashed, it's game over.

That's why he chose a car such as the GR Yaris, because it might as well be a cheat code.

The car may be small, but the wheel arches were wide, so a big wheels and tires setup could be fitted. 18-inch RAYS Volk TE37SL wheels wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RS, giving this little car a massive amount of lateral grip.

What's more, the deceleration on corner entry was extremely stable, and acceleration out of the corner was effortless, because the all-wheel-drive system masked any slight error in judgement. Even if this was the first run the driver had ever done in real life, the time was already in 2:21s.

That run immediately gave 'Gunma Wolf' the 6th place on the leaderboard. Yet, it was only the start.

Throughout the night, right until dawn, the driver kept running the GR Yaris on the Tsukuba Fruits Line, improving his time, bit by bit.

By 5 AM, he decided that it was enough, and set off home.

The final result was, 2:13.92. 6 hundredths of a second faster than 'TowaWaki39'.

'Gunma Wolf' was now the course record holder of the Fruits Line.

—

Towa was quite shocked when he woke up in the morning and saw the notification.

'1 person beat your record. You are now 2nd on the leaderboard.'

Towa immediately checked who this new record holder was, and saw the name 'Gunma Wolf', with a time barely faster than his, it could almost be chalked up to the tolerances of the system.

Then, after processing this information for a moment, Towa remembered something Seiki told him, so he quickly called him. Then Towa realized that Sumire was still sleeping in, as it was a holiday, so he quickly rushed out of the bedroom, waking her up accidentally anyway.

"Hey, Seiki!" Towa said, as soon as he picked up.

"What is it?" Seiki was already awake because he had to work today, so he wasn't annoyed by an early call.

"That one person you told me about running in Akagi with you, what's the group name again? Something weird."

"All Wheel Prevail."

"Have you checked the Geo Timer application this morning? Did you get a notification?"

"Well I just woke up so haven't had the time to check it yet, but I saw that a guy beat my time, hardly unusual."

"Well, the guy beat my time as well."

"What?! Someone got the record?"

As that was happening, Sumire stood by the bedroom door frame, she'd been eavesdropping who and Towa was talking about for the entire conversation, although she couldn't hear the other side, she got a pretty good gist of it.

"Yeah, and the name is 'Gunma Wolf'." Towa continued, Sumire thought it sounded chuunibyou.

"THAT IS MORITA!" Seiki shouted loudly, Towa had to pull the phone away from his ear, even Sumire could hear it and wondered who this guy was.

"No way... It's the guy for sure?!"

"That's what most people call him, yeah."

"Well," Towa paused to gather his thoughts, "what does he drive? I heard he's rally trained."

"A GR Yaris, a black one. Yes, he's trained with Tokuro Fukumi."

"You already told me that, thought it was familiar."

"Give me a sec," Seiki went quiet as he checked something on his phone screen, "it's him for sure. I'm surprised he actually came to Ibaraki to do a run."

"Were you the one who told him about the app?"

"I was, but it's a long drive, I didn't expect him to go there this soon."

Towa stopped and considered what all of this meant, and there was only one conclusion he had.

"Well the gauntlet has been thrown." Towa replied.

"No doubt about it." Seiki agreed, "So wotcha gonna do next?"

"I don't know, honestly."

"Well if I were to guess, he will appear at the Fruits Line runners meeting soon, possibly with the group I run with."

"Everyone will welcome him regardless."

"For sure, man. I wish to be there when it happens as well."

Towa hung up once he finished, then he turned around and saw Sumire standing there, giving him a bit of a fright.

"Oh, you're up?" Towa exclaimed, appearing quite surprised.

"Yeah, I was just wondering who called you so early in the morning..." Sumire replied, arms crossed, leaning on the door frame.

"Oh, it's Seiki. I called him, actually. Nothing to worry about."

"Huh."

Sumire didn't further comment, she just kept her thoughts in her mind and walked towards the bathroom.

"Oh right, we have to go shopping today, right? Groceries, supplies?" Sumire remembered that she told Towa that recently.

"Yeah, I know." Towa replied while nodding.

Sumire didn't say anything else, and went on with her routine.

The Geo Timer application user group was talking about this new runner 'Gunma Wolf' pretty much the entire Saturday, and how the almost impossible record of 'TowaWaki39' was beaten so soon. Pretty much everybody was amazed as that previous record was such a momentous thing to all of them, it probably meant the seriously fast racers were trying to beat it.

The group discussed the details, who and what this mysterious person drove, Seiki and Towa who knew the truth didn't say anything as they both agreed it was probably not necessary. Sunao Morita will eventually appear to all in the groups, they don't know when, but it will happen.

Towa was wondering though, what Mizuho would think about all of this? Would he be pleased? Would he be pissed off? In all fairness, Towa guessed the former rather than the latter considering how he reacted when he beat his time. It was Towa who was nervous. Being 1st on the leaderboard meant everybody was gunning for him. There's a slight inkling that the person who Sunao Morita was looking forward to meeting with the most, was Towa.