It was around 8 PM at the Kinoshita household when Daizo walked out of his house with the trash bags, ready to go and put them in the designated picking up spot. He saw that there was something unusual right on the street outside his house. It was pretty dark, so it wasn't clear what it was at first.

Once the strange black blob in his vision moved, Daizo realized that it was a person.

"Oi! What are you doing!?" Daizo shouted with his threatening voice, as he thought it was a delinquent loitering.

The person was startled, but didn't turn around or move, so Daizo cautiously moved in, ready to act, even if his hands were still holding the heavy trash bags.

Daizo finally noticed the small bike parked behind the fence, it was a distinctive one, so even if it was dark he recognized the person squatting, head between the knees, and sobbing, was Ippei.

"Ippei-kun?!" Daizo shouted quite alarmed, he squatted down to observe what's wrong.

Ippei turned his head up and saw Daizo there.

"Kinoshita-san... I'm sorry." Ippei's voice trembled.

"Hey it's fine, it's fine," Daizo patted him on the shoulder, "come in the house first and you can explain."

The whole family gathered. Daizo and Kimi were obviously concerned, but not as much as Sachiko. Soji was observing with curiosity and empathy, but was too scared to actually be in the dinner room where Ippei was sitting, crying his eyes out still.

It seemed like Ippei was crying for an hour to Sachiko's family, and she didn't care other than trying to console him, holding him with her arms and letting him rest on her shoulder to comfort him.

"Ippei, it's fine." Sachiko said.

Still, Ippei didn't say anything, even once he got into the house he wasn't telling them what exactly happened other than sorry. It was clear that he was breaking down so hard right now once he's in their custody.

For the last 8 hours before Ippei came here to Kinoshita's house, he had been riding the Gorilla around town, stopping to rest occasionally at various locations, but was not stopped by the police once although Mizuho reported his disappearance to them. He was either lucky or unlucky depending on the viewpoint.

After a while, Daizo and Kimi decided to leave the kids alone together for a while, as they realized Ippei may be quite overwhelmed by their presence.

"A runaway, huh?" Kimi commented, as she sat with Daizo in the other room.

"Should we report to his teacher? Surely we can do that pretty easily, right?" Daizo contemplated, as they would not know who his guidance teacher would be, but Iori Yamada who was Sachiko's guidance teacher would probably know.

"Yeah, we should."

Once it was decided, Daizo got his phone and tried to find the number for Iori, it was difficult but eventually he got it.

"Hello, is this Iori Yamada, Tsuchiura First High School?" Daizo inquired as the call was picked up.

"Yes, who is this?" Iori sounded pretty stressed out as well still, even through the phone.

"This is Sachiko Kinoshita's father, do you happen to know about Ippei Noda?"

"The teachers are trying to help searching for him, but we haven't been able to."

"Uh... well. He turned up to my house about... an hour ago. Pretty beaten up emotionally. I just want to make sure it's not gonna be a problem down the road."

"Really?!" Iori was extremely surprised.

She and the other teachers, including Isao, stayed at the school to wait for any development to this issue. All of them could feel the sudden relief as Iori talked to someone on the phone sounding like there's some good news. Isao in particular, who nearly lost his mind.

"Well the police have been notified, but apparently there's no report... Is he at least safe and sound?" said Iori. Who's now surrounded by other teachers.

"Yes, apart from having cried and cried for hours, there's nothing wrong with him." Daizo replied.

Iori was relieved to hear that, and was now thinking of the next course of action.

"I'll tell his father, but do you think this is the right time for him to go back? Considering you said he's pretty beaten up emotionally." Iori asked the opinion of Daizo, as he's there with Ippei.

"Hmmm... I don't know what happened, but it must've been bad, I guess I should know the situation before I can answer." Daizo replied, and Iori knew where he's coming from with that.

"Okay..."

Iori repeated the story that Mizuho told her this afternoon, it was vague and full of half truth, but it was enough to give Daizo a general gist of it.

"Maybe he can stay here overnight, if he needs a bit of time off from home." Daizo empathized with Ippei once he heard the story, and it surprised Iori.

"Is that alright, Kinoshita-san?" Iori worried slightly.

"Yeah, it's not an issue, we're familiar with him enough."

"Still, I need to notify the authorities and his father, I can't withhold that information. I can't guarantee you of what's going to happen next."

Daizo paused for a moment, contemplating the situation a little bit, and decided.

"I'll deal with it. You just tell his dad he's safe and sound."

After another half an hour, it seemed that Ippei calmed down enough and was more comfortable talking to Sachiko, who's still in the dining room.

"What happened?" Sachiko asked.

"You know what I told you, right? About the shop..." Ippei started, it wasn't long ago when he told Sachiko this.

"Yeah?" Sachiko's quite concerned about it.

"It was all a misunderstanding, I was worried for nothing."

Sachiko was wondering, shouldn't he be happy then? But she realized something, Ippei may have been hurt by the feeling of distrust, because why would Ippei not be let into the actual situation for the shop? This was because her family operates on a transparency basis, she knew in approximation, how much money was in the family account.

It was not the same for Ippei, he never was told anything, maybe he felt he should've known? It was a guess, but a pretty good guess. This did stem the hurt feeling Ippei was still having, but it's only a part of it.

There's more to it that even Ippei would struggle to explain right now.

—

"You've found him?!" Mizuho shouted as soon as Iori reported the situation to him.

"Yes, Noda-san, he's safe and sound." Iori continued.

"Where is he?"

From the way Mizuho asked her, Iori didn't really want to answer, as it was clear Mizuho sounded as emotionally charged as Ippei seemed to be.

"You know, maybe it's a good idea to let him have some time off... He's in the care of a very close friend's family." Iori answered, trying to not divulge as much as possible even if she's telling him the truth.

"Yamada-san," Mizuho was more agitated by that, if there's one thing he hated most, it's bullshit, "you don't have kids, do you?"

"No, Noda-san, I don't." Iori knew what Mizuho was pulling here, but it didn't hurt any less as a recipient.

"You wear a ring, huh, it's not out of the question. If your only son ran out of the house with a motorcycle, who knows where, would you still be calm and not worried about who he ran to, and why he ran away?"

"Noda-san, it was just a suggestion."

"Where is he then? I'm picking him up."

Iori realized that there's no way she could withhold that information from Mizuho, no matter how much she didn't want to.

"He's with his girlfriend, Sachiko Kinoshita, she lives in Okazaki." Iori replied.

"What did you say about him not being with his girlfriend, huh?..." It was clear from Mizuho's tone, that he was mocking Iori, and it irked her quite a lot.

"Noda-san..."

"Give me the detailed instructions, I'll go there right now."

Iori had to give Mizuho that, she had no choice.

"Thank you, Yamada-san."

Mizuho hung up and quickly grabbed the key to the car he just picked up this morning, one which he was going to hide away in the afternoon as he didn't want Ippei to see it yet, but he didn't realize that the school would end early.

It pissed Mizuho off so much, because he wanted to enjoy it, he had been waiting for months to take delivery of a brand new, Radiant Red Metallic, Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance, optioned to the hilt. 10.3 million yen was well spent in his eyes, but Mizuho didn't want Ippei to know about it, no matter what.

Mizuho always thought that if Ippei knew how comfortably rich he actually was, he'd not be able to appreciate the few simple things in life, that was how Mizuho imagined his parenting would need to be as it was something the society expected in his imagination.

It was the one thing Mizuho feared the most, for Ippei to take granted of how lucky he was.

The growl of the Lexus 5-litre V8 engine was just as fierce as the anger in Mizuho right now, he was driving pretty erratically to the location that Iori told him about. A house in Okazaki which was not far away from Takita at all.

Mizuho wanted to just enjoy this car, but he found it was hard because of this ridiculous situation his own son brought on.

Although, at the same time, Mizuho had a thought, a grim one.

Did all those years pass, he failed?

As a parent, did he fail?

In the anger Mizuho had, hid a feeling of dread, the one of failure.

Mizuho might be angry at Ippei, but he realized that no matter what happened, he still loved Ippei dearly, and he would not want to see him hurt.

Mizuho really did not want to see Ippei hurt by anything, including him.

It made him cry, something he had not done for more than a decade.

Some memories, bad ones, came back to Mizuho, hard. As he questioned if Ippei's mother, Kanoko, had been here with him, would any of this have happened? Or even if it would happen regardless, what would Kanoko do? For one, she probably would not be fraught with fear and panic like he was right now.

Neither Mizuho nor Ippei realized that the woes they have were something inevitable. They were father and son, and the apple never falls far from the tree.

The Lexus drove slowly through the neighbourhood, as Mizuho tried to find the household of the Kinoshita family. He finally saw the sign at a relatively large and old looking house in a quiet side street.

Mizuho turned the car right into the driveway, and stopped, he observed the house for quite a while, a lot of thoughts were in his head.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

There, Mizuho saw through the glass sliding doors, Ippei was indeed there on the sofa in the living room, looking pretty down. His girlfriend was beside him, and her parents were around to support him.

That image made Mizuho realize something.

That image was something he could never give to Ippei.

That image broke his heart.

Daizo heard the car coming in, and noticed the bright headlights shining through the window. He was curious as to who was there so he got up and walked to the door. He had a guess, but wanted to make sure.

At the door, Daizo saw the mysterious red Lexus parked there, but its occupant didn't come out. Mizuho turned his head and saw him standing there already, but was panicking slightly.

Suddenly, the Lexus turned on again, letting out the engine roar that was distinctive, and reversed out of the driveway, before disappearing away again, leaving Daizo pretty confused.

—

"Hello, you've been looking for me, right?" Mizuho asked the person he called.

"No way, is that really you?! I didn't expect you to actually call!" Sunao replied.

"Let me be straight with you, you wanna race me? You're really prepared to accommodate my schedule, no matter what?" Mizuho didn't waste his time.

"Yes, Noda-san, if it means I get to race you." Sunao was pretty shocked by this sudden development.

"Come to the Fruits Line, right now, I'll give you until midnight."

Sunao was working in his restaurant when Mizuho called, so he was looking around and thinking what his option was. It was too good of an opportunity to turn down, but business was business.

"I'll probably have to speed a little on the expressway..." Sunao started to grumble, as it was only around 2 hours until midnight, and he usually closed at that time.

"Midnight, or I won't be there." Mizuho said the ultimatum, then he hung up without even saying goodbye.

Sunao was quite alarmed by that, so he rushed around and got to one of his workers.

"Hey, Yama-san, can you close the shop for me?" Sunao told the worker.

"Something came up, boss?"

"Yes, very urgent."

Sunao didn't even waste his time, he just jumped in the GR Yaris and got on the expressway heading to Ibaraki. He put the pedal right down to the metal without a care for the speed camera.

The entire way, Sunao was pretty suspicious as to why Mizuho suddenly called him with the request to race like that, it seemed out of character even for someone he didn't know all that well.

Yet, it really was not an opportunity he was gonna pass up.

Sunao arrived under the Prefecture Flower Park sign with about 10 minutes to spare from midnight. It was not something he wanted to do often, speeding on the expressway like that, but he got away with it today.

On Friday night, there was no other car there as all of them had gone home. Sunao sat there, waiting for the clock to strike midnight, eager to see what happened next.

As if on cue, the shine from yellowed halogen headlights appeared nearly exactly at midnight, Sunao quickly stepped out to see if it was the car he was expecting, and it was.

The white Toyota Probox, the devil of Tsuchiura, the battered battlecruiser of 'Urasawa' Noda.

Sunao was full of excitement that he got to meet up with Mizuho again after all these years, but he gulped once he saw that Mizuho was clearly not in a good mood at all, he looked at him with a glare that seemed really menacing, even if it was unintentionally.

"Good evening, Noda-san." Sunao tried to be jovial to lighten the atmosphere.

"Morita-san? We've actually met before?" Mizuho seemed a bit confused trying to recall what Sunao told him in the reach out message.

"It was right here, Noda-san! About 10 years ago."

"Before the road closure from the landslide?"

"Yes, Noda-san."

"Huh," Mizuho seemed to not be as intense now, and it made Sunao relieved, "I have a vague image of meeting you now, but I don't know if it's just me projecting..."

"I can assure you that it's not, Noda-san. You told me about Tokuro Fukumi once you noticed I was from Gunma. I actually went to him and still occasionally visited."

Mizuho thought, Tokuro, huh... It must've been before the divorce. Otherwise he probably wouldn't have told this guy Morita to go to him.

"Anyway, let's not waste time, you want to race, I'll race you." Mizuho was rushing, but Sunao didn't really want to, he wanted to talk more.

"Hey, Noda-san, I was just wondering..."

"If you have any questions, keep it and ask after the race."

Sunao was curious as to why Mizuho seemed to be in a rush and clearly quite pissed off about something, but he was not in the position to ask.

"So do you want to lead or follow first?" Mizuho asked. Sunao contemplated for a moment.

"I want to follow you first, I missed seeing your awesome drives in action so much, Noda-san." Sunao sounded like he was gushing.

Mizuho of course obliged, and the two wildly different Toyotas were lining up about a car length apart.

The GR Yaris engine sound had a slight irregular rhythm to it, due to it being a 3-cylinder engine which meant unbalanced firing order, it's a distinctive sound with the base similar to cars with Flat-6 engine, but more uncouth. Much more interesting compared to the Probox's 4-cylinder unit which was less characterful and ordinary.

Sunao was ready to see if what he saw a decade ago was something truly special, or merely a nostalgic tinted memory.

The Probox launched away slightly before the GR Yaris, as the app intended, Sunao saw that it was indeed an ordinary FF car with front wheel skipping trying to gain traction, even with the paltry torque on a highly tuned naturally aspirated engine.

The GR Yaris in comparison, launched with so much more vigor and accelerated out like nothing else on the road, the advantage of the AWD system in full effect and it immediately caught up to the back of that Probox.

Going into the first corner, Sunao immediately knew that it was not merely the return of the memories of the days gone by that made him so excited and eager, the way that Probox moved was indeed something else.

It's incredibly subtle, because truly fast driving always feels that way, especially if you're going equally fast following right behind. In the heat of the moment one might not even realize what's so amazing about it.

People can try following it with similar racing lines, people can try to keep similar mid-corner speed, people can even try braking at the same point, it would not be possible to replicate it fully because of a few factors.

For an example, if Sunao was going to brake and steer into the turn at the same time as Mizuho's Probox, he would understeer off pretty badly, the alignment on that Probox allowed for way sharper turn in, and the body was way lighter so even if there's less contact patch because of smaller tire size, the tires didn't have to work as hard in order to maintain grip.

It's a misconception that the AWD system cars would be able to accelerate out of the corner at an earlier point than the FF or FR, the truth was, as long as the traction was effective, it didn't matter if only two wheels were being powered. Of course, once you get to a certain performance level, an AWD system would be necessary because the traction was still limited by the tires size. If all the wheels were driven, then the power would be divided between more wheels.

In essence, the AWD cars would be able to accelerate harder and not lose traction, not that they would be able to do it any earlier, the corner exit would still be at roughly the same point.

As long as the FF car were accelerating effectively without wasting traction, the speed would not be all that much different.

Same as with mid corner speed, the partial throttle part of the corner meant that there's no point in trying to gain more traction by dividing the power, AWD never magically add more lateral grip to any vehicle, the corner apex speed would be determined by the tire grip, that was influenced mainly by weight distribution, wheel alignment, tire compound, etc.

All of this meant that the first corner where the speed was high and there's little braking or accelerating out of tight turns, the two cars were not cornering any differently, despite being completely different in every aspect.

Sunaro who was following took great care in learning the more ideal driving line from following Mizuho, although he was never that bothered by it, due to one of the actual advantages of the AWD system.

The ability to maintain more traction on both acceleration, and deceleration due to engine braking also taking a similar principle to acceleration, meant the car was more forgiving to imperfect inputs or poor road surface. The mountain road surface is always bumpy and slippery, no matter what part of the planet it's in.

That, and the GR Yaris absolutely superb mechanical grip, meant it had almost no disadvantages. It might not be as sharp on the turn in as the Probox, but it had similar mid-corner speed, and much more superior traction on exit.

Sunao was not an absolute masterclass of a driver like Mizuho, but he was still a great one, with a good feel for extracting the limit of grip on unknown conditions, combined with the abilities of the GR Yaris, he absolutely deserved the top spot on the leaderboard right now.

By the first acceleration zone, Sunao's GR Yaris kept right on the tail of Mizuho's and gained a bit of time. It didn't gain much during the high speed left turn in the middle of the acceleration zone either. Sunao was still keeping a close look at Mizuho.

The second acceleration zone was where the performance difference could be truly judged, and no surprise there that the GR Yaris gained a lot on the Probox. It had maybe twice the amount of horsepower, with only a 300 kilogram weight disadvantage.

Once the two got to the latter half of the stage, the gap remained pretty much the same as well, because on a higher speed section, the GR Yaris didn't have to turn in with as much care as the tighter section, but then on the exit it couldn't really use the superior traction either.

The first round finally ended in a stalemate. Somehow, Sunao was annoyed by something

Yes, Mizuho's driving was precise and with a similar sense of the surface, but once that initial excitement was over, Sunao thought he had a pretty good idea of why he's so fast already, and it made the whole thing a little obvious and boring.

It's not really a secret or anything, in this day and age, anyone can read about the techniques that Mizuho used on the internet, and once they tried it for themselves, it'd become incredibly clear. It's not like the days before the widespread proliferation of information that the understanding of vehicle dynamics were not as well developed.

It cannot be denied that Mizuho was the expert of the course, and still a talented professional level racing driver, but he's not really this one mythical being that most people were almost treating him as.

It's merely because most people weren't good enough to discern, so they didn't really know how fast any real racers would be in the same situation.

If Sunao could keep up on the subsequent runs, once he familiarized with the course enough, even an amateur like him could be as fast as Mizuho on this course, if they were to race again in a different course, it'd be a different matter, but that's not the case right now, was it?

And the Probox, once Sunao had a closer look and thought about it. When describing it as an unsuitable car for running, of course it's an amazing story to anyone hearing it, but once you actually see it running with your own eyes, every single myth being said could be explained with logical answers.

The engine was highly modified, the gearbox was quick shifting, the suspension was expertly tuned, and the tires were top level. All of this stuff was not cheap, you cannot think of this Probox as an underdog, because it wasn't.

Yes, if some were to say in a conversation that it's a fast Probox without context, it's amazing, but if you say it's a Probox with shitton of money spent on it, even more than the cost to buy Sunao's GR Yaris including the mods to this level, it's still a cool car in the weird way, but it's not really an underdog story.

That made Sunao slightly annoyed, actually.

Mizuho today was not the same Mizuho that Sunao saw from a decade ago.

Sunao idolized Mizuho so much back in the early 2010's. The same Probox was modified very slightly back then, with only suspension, wheels and tires, but it was breathtakingly fast on the Fruits Line because Mizuho was on a whole nother level. When that same car was now so frankensteined to this level, it seemed to have lost its soul that made Sunao so mesmerized for this long.

The two cars went back up the mountain through Asahi Tunnel, and swapped positions before reaching the Flower Park sign.

It was time for Sunao to show what he's made of, and he truly wanted to show Mizuho what the GR Yaris was really made of.

Truthfully, Mizuho couldn't care less.

Mizuho wanted to drive tonight just because he didn't want to think about what happened today. Calling Sunao out here was just an excuse so he had more things to keep his mind occupied.

Even then, Mizuho was driving like a robot tonight, not as in completely perfect and precise like a program, but that he didn't react much to the changing circumstances. He drove with his brain turned completely off and went completely by muscle memory.

The Probox was still fast, of course, and it kept up with the GR Yaris easily as long as Mizuho didn't lose focus. The first run ended in a draw, because neither the GR Yaris nor the Probox was faster today.

Mizuho did have to watch the GR Yaris, obviously, but it didn't interest him at all. He already knew how capable the car was, there's a reason why many are hailing it as the giant killer. Faster than even the true sports car.

Sunao's driving made Mizuho bored.

Mizuho couldn't deny he's fast, but to him, this level of driving was not unexpected or interesting. Maybe the car was a big part of why he thought of it that way. It helped the driver so much that Mizuho, in his current emotional state, thought any trained monkey could drive and be fast.

Mizuho didn't even think about anything until the two cars reached the 4th acceleration zone before the mid-speed right leading to the wide radius, neverending left.

The way GR Yaris took that corner, made Mizuho so angry inside, because it looked so at ease. Like there's no challenge for Sunao. No instability on transition to the wide radius corner, and while there's slight understeer on mid-corner, the transition back on braking to the hairpin right after was just ridiculous.

Mizuho didn't realize that it was merely the trauma in his life seeping into his emotion again. He was finding faults in everything Sunao was doing because he was pissed off, no matter how much he tried to calm down.

It got so bad that Mizuho lifted completely on the 5th and final acceleration zone, letting the GR Yaris win by default.

Sunao didn't even realize that the Probox disappeared until he reached the finish line. He was a bit concerned for Mizuho, wondering if there's something wrong with the car? Sunao parked the GR Yaris on the straight, and waited for Mizuho to turn up in his vision again.

The gap at the end was exactly 200 meters, just enough to make it an instant win for Sunao. Somehow, the fact it was so specific was telling something to Sunao.

Mizuho didn't really lose, he just gave up intentionally.

It made Sunao really pissed off now, he wasted his time and risked his life for a halfhearted run? What's going on?

Sunao was going to lead Mizuho back, but he parked in the lot at the intersection because he had something to say.

Sunao stepped out of the GR Yaris, and Mizuho did the same from the Probox, they were now facing each other with Sunao having a clear annoyance in his expression, while Mizuho was neutral.

"What happened?!" Sunao tried to sound calm, but really couldn't.

"Nothing," Mizuho replied, sounding pretty tired, "you win."

Sunao wasn't having any of it right now, it was not a win, Mizuho can say that again and again, and it wouldn't be true.

"You just gave up, didn't you? How can I call that a win? Is there something wrong with the car?" Sunao continued, sounding a bit more calm now.

"Like I said, nothing, there's no point in continuing further, you've won." Mizuho doubled down.

Sunao could only stare in disbelief.

"Is that it, Noda-san? Is that really all a legendary level racer such as you have to give? Am I really that unworthy of your attention so much you'd dismiss me even if it meant you lose? Do you not have any pride?" Sunao shouted angrily at Mizuho.

Mizuho scoffed a little.

What pride was there to have in an illegal street race? It's not like any one of them will get a trophy out of this, or money.

"And you aren't proud of what you've achieved?" Mizuho asked back, a bit in a mocking tone.

"How can I be?! It was not a real challenge!" Sunao replied.

"A real challenge? Mountain running was never a real challenge, and it would never become a real challenge even if a million people think of it as a challenge."

"You don't take it seriously at all, and I understand why you'd be like that. But don't you forget that you were the one who called me out tonight to race, and yet you wasted my time in the end because what? You don't feel like it?"

After hearing that, Mizuho didn't react, he was so taken aback that he couldn't think of a response.

"I guess so..." Mizuho replied.

After that, Mizuho just opened the Probox door and stepped back in it, there's no point in continuing further. Sunao couldn't really stop him either.

Sunao could only just look, as the Probox drove away into the night, leaving him to stand there, alone.

This encounter did remind Sunao of what another racer told him about Mizuho back when he was still a young, inexperienced mountain runner. That Mizuho always give up too easily. If he lost interests, he'd just lift and let the car in front go. Even if there's no way he'd lose if he take it seriously. It didn't matter right now though, because Sunao couldn't even remember what the guy's name was. Only that he said that to him, after possibly a race.

Sunao could only sighed, for he had no idea what was wrong with Mizuho.

The drive back was infuriating, but at least it was somewhat of a closure, even if it left Sunao felt the business was unfinished.