Monday Morning, it was the last 2 weeks before the summer break at every high school using the 2 terms system. Most students were looking forward to that the most, even before the mid term exam was over.
Despite that, Ippei was not thinking about any of it. He spent most of his time looking for a part-time job ever since he saw the financial statement of the Noda PC shop. It was disheartening as Ippei didn't think most were worth his time, and the niggling thought that all of it won't even be enough.
Ippei was pretty angry at his dad for allowing the situation to be this bad for this long. From the quick glance, he estimated that the store had lost maybe 2.5 million yen in 2024 alone, and that's just slightly over half a year. It made Ippei question everything, every purchase his father did, every purchase that he did.
Of course, Ippei had no idea about the actual cash reserve his father had, because his father locked the bank statement book somewhere he couldn't access, and he couldn't access the online account either. He only knew that he was still getting the usual allowances for gasoline and groceries, but for how much longer exactly?
All of this was too much, Ippei didn't know what to think anymore, he couldn't even purchase the bento store food for lunch as he kept thinking it's expensive. He only got a rice ball from the convenience store because although it was much less of a meal, it was cheaper. He didn't want to be with Akira or Ryoji so he sat at the table behind the building.
"You've been busy?"
Ippei looked up as he bit into the rice ball he bought, and saw Sachiko standing there in front of him.
"Not particularly?" Ippei was slightly confused by the observation.
"You only bought that for lunch?" Sachiko pointed to the sad looking rice ball in his hands, "That's unusual."
Ippei realized where Sachiko was coming from now, but didn't want to let her be the bearer or his trouble, so he thought of a joke.
"A cat stole my lunchbox, I had a Wagyu steak but it's gone." Ippei said with a forced smile, which meant Sachiko wasn't really thinking of it as a good joke.
"A cat, huh..." Sachiko replied, now sitting on the bench beside Ippei. It was clear that she would rather tell her the truth.
Sachiko pulled out a lunchbox she had bought this morning, it was not much, but certainly superior to Ippei's lunch, with it being an assortment of fried meats and vegetables. It certainly made Ippei want to steal some. Sachiko looked up and saw Ippei had that subtle look, so she stabbed an onion ring with a plastic fork and held it in front of him.
"It's fine." Ippei declined, but Sachiko moved her hand in front of his face in a teasing manner.
"If I eat too much fried food I'd gain weight. Would you really want that?" Sachiko asked jokingly.
"But would you want me to gain weight?" Ippei asked back, which made Sachiko giggle.
"I don't know." Sachiko kept waving the onion ring, "You're still kinda thin in my opinion."
Sachiko finally saw Ippei smile for the first time today. She had been looking at him from a distance and saw how forlorn he looked for a really long while, Sachiko started to think maybe that's just his face.
Ippei finally took the bite on that onion ring.
"How was Nikko?" Ippei asked while still chewing.
"It was terrific." Sachiko smiled, "I went to Lake Chuzenji, it was beautiful. The roads there and back were bad though."
"Huh? What do you mean? Bad roads?"
"Ever heard of Irohazaka roads?"
"I've heard of it before, maybe? Is it famous or something?"
Sachiko let out a little scoff, but she knew that sometimes people just weren't that interested in the arts of route planning. She knew Ippei was only familiar with the area of Tsuchiura and Tsukuba at best.
"Yeah, it's been in Initial D and... eh..." Sachiko paused, she couldn't hold her giggle, "Cromartie High School"
"Huh? Cromartie High School?" Ippei knew that he had watched the anime before, even if it came out before he was born.
"I'd have thought you'd know Initial D, but yeah, it was a gag in Cromartie High School."
"It was that well known huh..."
"Maybe you should go on a road trip more, there's so much out there even in the Kanto region."
"It's kinda difficult when you only have a Gorilla bike. The ergonomics are only fit for a monkey. I wouldn't ride it to Arakawaoki, let alone Nikko." Ippei groused a little, which made Sachiko laugh.
"Okazaki is your limit, huh." Sachiko said teasingly, Ippei understood what she meant.
"I'd even walk if it meant I get to see you."
"No!" Sachiko said, acting alarmed, "I love your Gorilla! Don't walk!"
"Why is it called Gorilla anyway?"
"It's a big Monkey."
"What?"
Ippei looked confused by what Sachiko said, he thought it was a joke that the animal gorilla was just a big monkey. Sachiko saw the confusion in his eyes and thought to clarify.
"There's a series of Honda bikes called the Z, right? Z50, etc. Honda called them Z, but people called them Monkey because when you ride them you look like a Monkey. You even called it yourself." Sachiko explained, and it made more sense to Ippei.
"But why is it a Gorilla?" Ippei was still looking for the answer.
"Because it's a big Monkey." Sachiko repeated.
Ippei knew the conversation was going nowhere, but he appreciated Sachiko for trying to explain it to him.
"Hey, you've worked part-time before, right?" Ippei suddenly asked, which surprised Sachiko.
"I have, yeah. During last year's summer and winter break. So I could buy a Little Cub." Sachiko replied, which made Ippei recall the white and blue bike she had as she told him about it before.
"Where did you work?"
"A pet shop. Mostly handling the cashiers but I did get to do grooming as well. It was fun."
Sachiko looked very happy to be recalling those experiences, but Ippei couldn't imagine himself working in a pet shop. It sounded ridiculous just thinking about it.
"How did you go find out about the job?" Ippei asked.
At that point, Sachiko was wondering a few things, Ippei had never talked about this before, at all.
"Are you looking for a part-time job?" Sachiko asked, quite curious about the motive.
"I might be..." Ippei replied, but was still being coy.
"You can ask Tanigawa-sensei, maybe?"
"Would he know that sort of stuff?" Ippei didn't realize that was something his guidance teacher from Yokohama would know.
"Yeah," Sachiko nodded, "the school has programs for students to find part-time work. Tanigawa-sensei would definitely be able to point you to the right people."
Ippei went quiet, as he was considering doing as Sachiko suggested. Still, Sachiko was wondering why.
"Are you planning on buying something?" Sachiko asked, expecting Ippei to be shy, or maybe excited.
What Sachiko didn't expect was for Ippei to look more depressed. It was like his emotion turned for the worse in a split second. It made her second guess that what she said might have been wrong, but she couldn't think of why.
"It's a band-aid fix anyway..." Ippei said like he's losing hope, and it concerned Sachiko so much.
"Is there a problem? Something going on that I don't know?" Sachiko asked even if she wasn't sure if she would be able to help.
Ippei went quiet, he actually looked like he was holding in his bother Something was clearly very wrong.
"What happened to Ryoji could happen to me..." Ippei finally answered.
"What?!" Sachiko was shocked to hear that, even if she didn't quite understand what exactly Ippei meant.
"The PC shop..." Ippei looked like he was going to cry just saying all this, "...it's not going well."
Once what Ippei said sank in fully, Sachiko did have a thought but she didn't think she was in the position to suggest it.
"Would you mind explaining further?" Sachiko had to continue asking, even if she felt uncomfortable prying.
"It's been operating at a loss." Ippei replied simply, but Sachiko was not convinced.
"You know most companies in Japan are operating at a loss, right?"
"Not for 4 maybe 5 years straight," Ippei refuted, "and not when it's a small business."
Sachiko wouldn't have guessed that from seeing the way Ippei had been living, but she knew Ryoji was not exactly showing the symptoms of a bankrupt family either. Still, she was a bit more optimistic than Ippei who directly saw the spreadsheets.
"Was it that bad?" Sachiko asked, even if she felt she was being insensitive.
Ippei turned to her, his eyes bloodshot from the tears, and nodded gently. That made Sachiko want to comfort him, but it was a different kind of stress he was having and she was thinking a logical solution was in order.
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"You should definitely consult with Tanigawa-sensei then, I'll go with you if you don't want to go alone." Sachiko offered.
"Thank you." Ippei wiped his tears.
"We should definitely go now."
"Eh?!"
Sachiko stood up with her hand reaching in front of Ippei.
"What's there to wait? The earlier you go, the quicker someone can help you find the right job for you."
Ippei was still reluctant, but Sachiko pulled his hand up from the bench and forced him to go with her.
—
At around 2 AM, Satoshi was running his S2000 down the Tsukuba Fruits Line.
Of course, getting shade thrown at him for things that was not really his fault was infuriating, but it didn't really stop him being able to enjoy running all that much, even if it's unlikely he'll ever appear at such a gathering ever again.
Satoshi genuinely felt bad for what his family did, but he knew that no one would believe him, he didn't expect anyone to recognize him, but the world was too small and it seemed that everyone knew each other. The theory of 6 degrees of separation was more real, especially within such a tight circle.
Somehow, the thought that someone who dealt with his family business being a runner surprised Satoshi still, and he felt guilty for that too, even if it was clear the guy, Norio Hattori, would not accept his existence even if he apologized.
Satoshi wanted to improve his time, but there wasn't much time left as he was able to visit as he was taking care of the Mito branch affairs. It's likely that Satoshi got until the end of the month at best, so he was determined to improve no matter what.
Satoshi had been running the course for about 1 hour now as he couldn't sleep, at this hour no one was around, it was only him alone on the course.
All this time, Satoshi could only think about two people; Towa Wakisaka, and the mysterious 'Gunma Wolf'.
Satoshi was a decent driver, he had taken some training before but he never was in a delusion that it was anything more than a hobby. It's not like he was interested in cars to the extent of Takeshi, who always talked about them. Deep down, Satoshi thought that meant Takeshi was a dull man, people tolerated him because of his status, but not much because of his personality.
The S2000 was much quicker than it has any rights to be, it's a 25 year old design at this point, and most would scoff at the technological gap, but that will always be a misconception.
A car such as the S2000 could become fast again with a few choice modifications, and the main thing would be the tires. The simplest change you can do to any car, and one which has the most advancement.
Satoshi's S2000 had a set of oversize Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2, and it was different from a normal S2000 set up in that the tires were not staggered. The width section, which affects grip the most from all the tire sizes, was the same all around. Unlike the standard S2000 which had the rear tires wider than the front to aid balance.
This was actually a band-aid fix, all things considered. The S2000 rear suspension had a quirk which made the standard car oversteer on compression, it meant the tires were staggered to help the handling safer for road use. Most cars with similar set up, once they're being used to the full extent of the lateral g capability, would be using the square set up for 2 reasons.
The first being the ease of maintenance, as the square setup meant the tires could be rotated front and rear, this was important because the front tires always had more load on it, and would wear quicker. The second reason was that, especially on the tighter the track, the less understeer on turn in would be desirable.
For a driver like Satoshi, who was a lot more capable than Takeshi ever would have been, the twitchy nature of the S2000 would not faze him much.
Satoshi was not a fancy driver, he was not even to the level of Towa Wakisaka, even he himself knew that, but he had determination to become faster on the Fruits Line. The place that became a bit of a hotspot for mountain road runners.
The S2000 was getting through the technical, double corner section in the first half, Satoshi messed up slightly, and lost speed as he had to slow down in order not to let the car run too wide into the outside barrier. The run was lost, and there's no point in pushing hard any further.
Satoshi was miffed, but it wasn't the end of the world, he just took the time to cool down, when his phone screen alerted him to something. A flashing blue screen? What exactly does that mean? Satoshi wondered.
Then, Satoshi noticed a flash of lights coming from behind in his rearview mirror, a car was approaching pretty quickly, so he realized that it was the Geo Timer application probably warning him of that.
Satoshi had a bit of pride, even if he already messed up his run, when a car was approaching fast, he couldn't resist trying to pull away, even if he didn't know what it was.
It was the first acceleration zone, Satoshi shifted down, and accelerated away from the cooling down session, the GR Yaris followed as soon as it saw the S2000 speeding away.
Satoshi turned the S2000 into the corner where Takeshi crashed, but he wasn't thinking about it as his brain didn't have enough capacity left to think about anything else but to control the car. The S2000 was stable as long as Satoshi didn't accelerate too much.
Sunao was just observing from the black GR Yaris, observing how good this silver S2000 was. He saw a glimpse on the screen that it was 'Inazuma' he was chasing. Not the person he wanted, but it'd still be a good benchmark.
The next right hairpin was interesting, because it was very clear to Sunao that the S2000 was better at turning in than the GR Yaris was, and the mid speed corner was about the same. The corner exit, however...
The traction of the GR Yaris all-wheel-drive system meant that once Sunao rotated the car enough, he could accelerate away without fear of losing grip. The GR Yaris shot off the corner hard, way harder than the S2000 could ever dream about. It was especially important as the next part was the 2nd acceleration zone where the cars would be able to gain the most speed.
Sunao immediately pulled alongside the S2000 on the corner exit, and was now on the right, which forced Satoshi to stay in the left lane.
This acceleration zone could be done flat out, but only if the car was following each other, not two wide. The S2000 was especially disadvantaged, because the slight wiggle became so much tighter if the driver were forced to not cut the lane, it meant Satoshi had some doubt about pushing the accelerator pedal harder.
That, along with the fact Sunao's GR Yaris was way more powerful than the stock engine S2000, meant he overtook Satoshi like it was not there. Although it was not an actual battle, Satoshi was determined to follow and see. Satoshi noticed once the GR Yaris passed that it had a Maebashi number plate, and realized something. 'Gunma Wolf'? That would make sense.
Once they reached the next corner, Satoshi found he could close the gap somewhat on the corner entry, and maintain the gap on the apex, but once the GR Yaris reached the corner exit, it shot off like a rocketship.
Satoshi knew that all-wheel-drive was good, but he never knew how good the GR Yaris would actually be on the mountain roads with a decent driver. He had encountered a few in Tochigi, but never one with a high level driver such as this person, whom he didn't know was the 'Gunma Wolf'.
The gap was not extending as quickly as Satoshi expected, considering how easy it overtook him in the acceleration zone, he was caught napping a little bit. Satoshi was sure the S2000 could conceivably maintain this gap if he was a better driver. That thought should've made Satoshi lift and let the GR Yaris run away. There's no point in following it and creating unnecessary risk. But was there ever a logical 'car people'?
After the 3rd acceleration zone, Satoshi was determined to use the advantage of the S2000, in that it was able to enter the corner slightly quicker than the GR Yaris from the more twitchy handling, but it was making him slower because he was over driving the car.
Somehow, the GR Yaris never seemed to be fazed about anything, the bumps, and slippery leaves, it was so stable even if the driver was being aggressive with their inputs. It was annoying to observe and follow, and it made Satoshi irrational.
After the 4th acceleration zone, the GR Yaris was about 2 seconds ahead, and it went onto the tricky set of corners with the same poised and elegant movement, while Satoshi went into the wide right turn with slight overspeed and a little bit of an abrupt steering. This would not be an issue, if not for the fact that the next corner was an immediate, never ending left.
The weight transfer unsettled the S2000, and it went into an uncatchable oversteer, a half-spin, on the weight transition back while turning left. The road saved Satoshi from crashing a little bit because the corner was long and wide, so he didn't hit the guardrail or the inner road gutter. It stopped in the middle of the road, right before the next turn.
Satoshi heart was beating hard and fast, he realized how lucky he was not to have the same accident that fucked up Takeshi. And it confirmed that there's no way in hell he'd be able to catch up to that GR Yaris.
Satoshi went back to his hotel immediately.
—
Towa was working on the typical Tuesday afternoon, as he had been taking on quite a big project so he didn't have so much free time. He considered not picking up a call that he thought was a cold caller as it didn't show as a saved number, and he went through with it, letting it ring without even looking away from the monitor.
Then, immediately after, the ringing started again, like whoever this person really wanted to talk to him, so Towa reluctantly picked up.
"What?" Towa answered with a hard, pissed off voice.
"Wakisaka! Don't hang up! It's me. Satoshi!"
Towa considered for a moment, but felt like he probably had something important to say, otherwise he wouldn't try to find his number and called like this.
"What is it, Satoshi-senpai? I don't have much time." Towa replied, still sounding a little annoyed.
"Do you know anything about 'Gunma Wolf'?" Satoshi asked, and Towa was not surprised.
"Well, Seiki already told me about him." Towa answered.
"I'm pretty sure I saw him last night on the Fruits Line, black GR Yaris, Maebashi number plate."
Towa recalled the conversation he had with Seiki, and it matched, so he was not surprised by this either.
"Yeah, I know." Towa was dismissive.
"There's no way I could follow him at all, he's way too fast." Satoshi continued, but Towa still didn't care much.
"You know, I have a deadline to meet, can you just Line me later?"
"Wakisaka, wai..."
Towa hung up and continued on with his work.
Truthfully? Towa couldn't care much about running at the moment, not only because of the work.
Sumire had been acting weird lately, and Towa wasn't sure why. She was more aloof, but Towa didn't know why. It made him also pretty annoyed as while he knew she was angry about something, but he wasn't sure what and he couldn't fix it when that's the case.
Whatever the bullshit about mountain running at the moment, Towa didn't have the capacity to think about it.
That was, until a new member appeared on the Geo Timer Society discord group the same day.
The first message from him was.
'I am 'Gunma Wolf', and I want to challenge the fastest racer on the Tsukuba Fruits Line. My contact have given me this information, so even if I'm not tagging you directly, I hope this open letter reaches you. Contact me anytime you want, and we can set up that race.'
It caused a bit of a stir, and Towa still didn't care much to reply, but the pressure from making it an open letter was getting to him, it was obvious that he did this because of that exact reason.
Still, a battle was the least of Towa worries right now.
—
At 6 PM, Iori and Norio scheduled a sudden meeting at a small ramen restaurant near Tsuchiura First High School. There was a pressing issue they both had to talk about. The message from 'Gunma Wolf' to Towa.
As administrators for the Geo Timer Society group, it was their responsibility to maintain order of the community. That act was unprecedented, but it felt dangerous even if the members were trusted racers.
Norio was waiting for Iori, as a self employed guy, he was able to arrive at the meeting place earlier. He was not really worried, and thought it was inevitable, but Iori sounded concerned, so he was ready to discuss it with her. Not long after, the sound of Iori's FN2 announced her arrival.
Iori walked into the ramen shop, and saw Norio was there, waving at her. None of the other patrons there were students so she was relieved. This restaurant was chosen specifically because it's close by, but not popular with the students because it's not trendy.
Norio still couldn't get used to seeing Iori in a respectable teacher's uniform, even if she'd met her like this a few times now.
"Good evening." Iori greeted Norio, who nodded.
"Good evening. How have you been?" Norio asked, and Iori scoffed a little.
"You asked like we haven't met like last week, how have you been?" Iori snarked a little, it was clear she was a bit stressed so Norio didn't mind.
"It's been alright."
Iori sat down, and the waiter came to pick up her order, she picked a miso ramen that she knew was pretty good. Iori already told Masayoshi she'd be running home late.
"Well, what do you think?" Norio asked, Iori knew what the matter was even if he wasn't being clear.
Iori sighed.
"I don't think this 'Gunma Wolf' person has bad intention, but don't you think it's a bit weird that he took the effort to find out about our group?" Iori explained, looking restless in Norio's eyes.
"I don't disagree with that. I think it's weird that he came in pretty bombastic like that." Norio replied.
"Right? So, what exactly should we do then? Sit and watch?" Iori kept talking quickly, like she's a bit confused and frustrated about it all.
"That might be the best course of action..."
Iori pouted from Norio's indifferent reaction, but she knew she had to calm down. There's a lot going on in her life right now, and she knew Norio was the same, but he was a lot calmer than she was.
"So, did Kisho-san get back to Shizuoka alright?" Iori suddenly asked, and it raised Norio's eyebrows.
"He did, yeah. Why?" Norio was curious as to why Iori brought it up.
"Well, you know, curious. Well-wishing. Etc."
"How is it with you and Masayoshi-san?"
"Oh it's great, he's a guy who never complains about anything, so you only have to care when he says something because then you know something bad is going on. It's great."
"So is he saying something recently?"
"Not really, no..." Iori was now a bit curious too as to why Norio asked, "He's getting used to driving the N-One on the expressway, actually, because I accompanied him to Hirai Beach recently."
"Isn't there no expressway to Kashima?"
Iori flubbed the story a little bit, and she was now backtracking.
"Oh yeah, I meant North Ibaraki. That was a different trip." Iori corrected herself.
Norio went back to eating his ramen bowl, while Iori clearly was pretty stressed out still, her ramen arrived a bit later and they didn't talk much while finishing it.
"So what do you think we should do?" Iori asked, after Norio finished his ramen.
Norio didn't say anything but shrug, as he didn't know either.
"Keep an eye out, I guess. The guy will turn up eventually." Norio finally answered.
That's it.
There's nothing else they can do.