It was another typical summer day, Monday morning, but a message shook the entirety of the Geo Timer Society discord group. It was from a new member who just entered last night, quietly.

'Hi, this is 'Urasawa'. I lost to 'Gunma Wolf' on Friday. The Geo Timer Application has been a success. I'm glad you all like it. Although you have to understand that maintaining the application is not an easy task, and it has achieved the purpose that I've made it for. I want to announce in advance that the application will be switched off as soon as the snow hits Ibaraki this year. I wish you all the best.'

Most of the people in the group were saddened, but they took it better than Mizuho anticipated. A lot of people commented saying thank you for creating a thing that brought together the people, creating this community that they were sure would continue despite the app being shut down.

All except for Sunao Morita. He was angry. To him, Mizuho was escaping from it all because of the loss, he didn't expect him to be such a coward, and it shattered the illusion of grandiose that he had of him for a decade. Never meet your heroes, as some would say.

Surprisingly, it was not the group leader like Iori or Norio who were the most alarmed by the news, it was Towa Wakisaka.

Towa immediately drove to Tsuchiura after getting Sumire to work, all the while he was guessing why Mizuho would suddenly announce that.

Once Towa arrived, he was a little surprised to not see the Probox there, in its place was a red Lexus IS. Towa wondered if Mizuho borrowed it from somebody, as it seemed out of character for him. It's way too nice of a car compared to the Probox, even if it didn't look out of place in this upper-middle class neighbourhood.

A genuine car person like Towa also noticed that the IS had a hood bulge, unique wheels, big brakes, and quad exhaust pipes indicating that it was an IS500 F Sport, a V8 equipped variant that cost quite a lot. It was perhaps not so out of character in this case, but quite an expensive car regardless.

Once Towa went through the door, he noticed Mizuho sitting at the workstation, and there was a teenage boy he didn't recognize who also sat by Mizuho, but they looked so alike that Towa knew they were related somehow.

"Ah, good morning." Mizuho greeted Towa.

"Good morning, Noda-san." Towa greeted back, still wondering who the young man was.

Ippei was slightly shy, as he guessed Towa was a typical customer, but thought it was weird that he'd come in at very early hours.

"I'll give the documents to you once it's done." Mizuho dismissed Ippei, as they were preparing for the job interview that Ueno scheduled for tomorrow.

"Thanks, dad."

Ippei disappeared into the living room, as he knew Mizuho probably wouldn't really need him to be there with this customer.

"So, you've seen the message then." Mizuho immediately got to the point, but he looked quite glad talking about it, which Towa didn't expect.

"Yeah, I'm so confused right now as to why you'd say that. I'm more shocked about it than you saying you lost to Gunma Wolf." Towa replied, eyebrows frowning.

"I said what I meant, Wakisaka-san. It's done its purpose." Mizuho chuckled a little.

"And what purpose is that, exactly?"

"You know, I was just bored during the pandemic, so I created some fun little things to pass time. It's not the only software I had out there, but it's the only sort of successful one."

Towa thought, is that so? Is that really it? Mizuho seemed genuine enough, but he couldn't tell.

"Even without the app, the community surrounding it has become sustainable, with the effort continued by people such as Yamada, you know Yamada-san right? She's doing great work building a friendly place where runners can hang. I've only checked the group recently and I'm sure of that." Mizuho explained further, and it made sense to Towa in that regard, but not the others.

"But, what exactly happened with Morita?" Towa went back to the battle Mizuho mentioned.

"I just lost interest, really."

It was kinda true, Mizuho did lose interest in the battle, but not for the reason Towa would've guessed, or he himself would admit.

"It seemed too easy, would you really be fine with letting him have the glory?" Towa asked back, quite ambivalent about it. He kind of understood the motive of Mizuho, but didn't understand why he let go so easily.

"It's not too easy, Wakisaka-san, it's just having the right priority in life..." Mizuho stated, and he looked at Towa with serious expression.

"Priority?"

"Obviously, people have different priorities, right? But one thing that's for sure is that you should never go too deep into any hobbies. Never become one of those people who are engulfed fully by it that makes you sacrifice other things in life in doing so."

"And did you do that?"

"I did, that's why I'm telling you this."

Towa could sense a slight forlornness from Mizuho somehow, but he didn't know why. He got what Mizuho was trying to say, but he couldn't really relate to it.

"But, I still don't think it should be left at that..." Towa continued, he's not giving up that easily.

"If you want to, then you can do so on your own accord. If you're looking for my approval or anything, I can tell you right now it's not necessary. I don't own the course. I only own the app, and I can shut it off tomorrow if I wanted. It's never a permanent thing from the start." Mizuho explained.

"So if I'm asking for your advice, should I challenge Sunao Morita, would you say no?"

"Of course not, like I said, you can decide on your own accord."

That was enough for Towa, it was not a discouragement, even if it was not an encouragement either. At that moment, Towa's expression changed into one of determination.

"But he's in a GR Yaris, right? Do you think I'd win with my Roadster?" Towa was not confident about it at all, but Mizuho smiled back.

"Yes, with your level of driving, it's totally possible," Mizuho then stood up from his chair, "but it requires something from you, and I'm not able to tell for certain that you'd be able to do it."

"If there's a way that I can get revenge for you, it doesn't matter."

Mizuho threw his hand up as soon as he heard that, and he had to clarify something immediately.

"Don't make it about me, it's your decision and for your sake. I don't give a shit about winning or losing to punk racers on the mountain. If you do, I can help you, but it's not for my sake." Mizuho said in a stern voice, and it made Towa realize his mistake.

"Sorry." Towa apologized.

"Don't worry about it," Mizuho quickly reassured Towa, "but now I'm going to ask you a pretty weird question."

Towa was slightly nervous as Mizuho was saying 'weird question', he wondered how weird it would be. Was this like a secret test of character like in typical Shonen cartoons he read about a lot when he was a kid?

"Do you workout often?" Mizuho asked, with a completely straight face.

"Eh? Er..." Towa was indeed pretty confused, "I tried to go to the gym every week, but sometimes I had to skip because of the workload."

"So you're not too out of shape, then?"

"I wouldn't say so, no."

"How many runs do you think you can do on the Fruits Line before you get tired out?"

"Ehhhh? Physically I think it's not an issue for 10 or even 20 runs. Mentally it's different if it's full throttle. I'd get tired if it's in an actual battle, but I don't know how many runs."

"Hmmm, that's difficult to say then." Mizuho contemplated, "Are you free right now?"

"I'm not exactly free, but I can take half a day off and work nights."

"Okay then," Mizuho walked around the workstation, "can you wait outside for 10 minutes?"

Towa didn't know why, but he obliged. He walked out of the shop and stood at the driveway outside, and he couldn't help admiring the gleaming red Lexus that was parked there in Probox's usual spot.

After exactly 10 minutes, Mizuho stepped out of the shop, and turned the sign around to show that it was closed.

"Eh? Are we going somewhere?" Towa wondered.

"Yeah, to Shimosakata." Mizuho answered, walking towards the Lexus.

"Why?"

"You'll see, just leave the Roadster here."

Mizuho got into the Lexus first, so Towa quickly followed and got onto the passenger seat. It was definitely brand new, Towa noted, as it smelled like a new car and with some of the plastic protection bags had not been removed yet, the odometer also showed less than 100 kilometers. Mizuho then started the Lexus, which let out an incredible growl from the exhaust, it was a pretty intimidating noise.

"Did you borrow this from someone, or did you buy it?" Towa asked, as Mizuho set off.

"No, it's mine, I just bought it last Friday." Mizuho answered.

"It doesn't really suit you, if I'm honest..." Towa commented, which made Mizuho laugh.

"It's just that you always see me in the Probox, you'll get used to it."

The Lexus then drove across Tsuchiura, towards the more rural area of the city. Mizuho took the Tsuchiura New Way above the Tsuchiura-Gakuen, a route that he was very familiar with, because he drove on this road every Sunday.

Due to mid-morning traffic having already cleared, the journey took less than 15 minutes for an 8 kilometer drive. It didn't take long at all for the scenery and feel of Tsuchiura to turn from a mid-density city, into an incredibly sparsely populated small town.

The Joban expressway might show some infrastructure upgrades the city had, but the empty fields around it made sure the scenery felt incredibly... lonely? There's no houses to be seen for miles, and it's just a 10 minute drive away from downtown Tsuchiura.

Shimosakata was a small town, consisting mostly of agricultural fields and small industrialized businesses. It's quiet and empty even on Monday morning. In fact, for Towa, the town felt similar to Motegi, although he didn't think it was as bleak and rundown as that place in Tochigi. It's not a place of great history that then lost its purpose. It's just... empty, and felt like it's been that way from day one.

After the red Lexus went through the Joban Expressway underpass, Mizuho turned left into a relatively large plot of land, with two prominent buildings in the premises. One of them was a small garage catering to the locals, the other was a nondescript large warehouse that felt almost out of place. Mizuho parked the Lexus in front of the warehouse door.

"Alright," Mizuho said, as he turned off the Lexus, "we've arrived."

"What is this place, Noda-san?" Towa was curious.

At that moment, Motohiro Sasagawa walked out of the garage to see who'd driven into the area, as he usually would, and once he saw Mizuho there he was pretty surprised and delighted.

"Noda-chan!" Motohiro shouted, which caught the attention of both Mizuho and Towa.

"Mo-chan!" Mizuho greeted back, waving with enthusiasm.

Towa felt slightly awkward that he had to meet new people, but this Mo-chan did vaguely remind him of somebody.

"Who's this young man you've brought here?" Motohiro asked as he looked at Towa and gave a friendly smile.

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"Ah, you remember the white Roadster you worked on not long ago? He's the owner." Mizuho said, and Motohiro remembered.

"Oh! That one. Yeah. Pretty nice car." Motohiro said with excitement, then he turned to Towa, "I'm Motohiro, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Wakisaka." Towa introduced himself.

"Isn't he my brother's student, you say?" Motohiro turned and asked Mizuho.

"Yeah."

"Ah yeah, I should clarify, Koichi is my brother. You've met him, yeah?" Motohiro explained.

Then, Towa realized something with that statement, the reason he was reminded of someone was because this Motohiro guy was the younger brother of Koichi Sasagawa. Towa had thought that they don't look alike at all, apart from a few features on the face. Koichi was, as much as he felt guilty thinking so, an ovoid shape man. Motohiro was like a telephone pole by comparison.

"And you finally bought the Lexus you wanted, huh?" Motohiro then turned his attention to the red IS.

"Well I did order it during winter, it took a while for it to arrive." Mizuho replied, seemingly quite proud to show it off.

"I wonder if the alignment could be adjusted, to make it more fun. The exhaust sounded good too, but I bet it can sound better."

Mizuho laughed at Motohiro's comment, it didn't take long for his mind to go into modifications.

"With this one I'll probably not do anything until it's out of warranty." Mizuho declined, which disappointed Motohiro.

"Ehhhh? That's boring..." Motohiro pouted, "So why are you here again?"

"Oh, I'm going to have Wakisaka-san here play with the simulator."

"The simulator? Did you bring it here?" Motohiro was surprised.

"Yeah, I got a new setup, so the old one is relegated to here."

"Ooooh, that's great, can I play sometime?"

"Haha, sure, don't you already have the key?"

"I do, but I wouldn't want to go in without your permission."

Towa who'd been listening got more of an idea of what Mizuho wanted him to do, but was still pretty wary about what Mizuho told him before, about the run.

"You can go in anytime, it's not like you don't know what's inside." Mizuho said, a little bit teasing.

"Sure, I'll take that as my permission, huh..." Motohiro said with a grin, before turning to Towa, "This man really likes you as a racer, you know. He really trusted you."

Towa wasn't sure of what to make of Motohiro's comment, and he already walked back to continue running his mechanic business. Mizuho couldn't help but notice that Osamu Okamoto, the young mechanic he met a while back, was working on a pretty nice looking old BMW 5-Series on the hoist in the garage.

"I know what you're thinking..." Mizuho started.

"He doesn't look like Sasagawa-sensei at all." Towa replied before Mizuho could continue, and it made Mizuho let out a tiny laugh.

"Well, I was going to say you think the man is a bit too enthusiastic, but he's a good engineer and a great friend. You're right though that he doesn't look like Ko-chan."

"But they are actually brothers, right?"

"Yep, born 2 years apart. We've been saying the same thing for 25 years."

Mizuho unlocked the warehouse door with his key, and slid it open upward.

Once Mizuho turned on the light, Towa was shocked.

In this pretty large warehouse, house a collection of perhaps 17 or 18 cars inside and a handful of motorbikes, Towa couldn't count just by looking at it. Mostly classics. It's a quite eclectic collection too, with all sorts of cars from the 60's classic up to modern day sports cars.

The most familiar car to Towa, was the battered white Probox that parked nearest to the entrance, but that pale in the shadow of other cars that were there.

A few standouts were a silver Hakosuka, a red Testarossa, a gold Mazda Savanna, and a very well-in-period-tuned, white R32 GT-R. These were the bonafide classics. All immaculate and clearly being used and not just stored to rot. There was also the more modern sports car like the blue Ferrari California T, but that's almost ordinary.

One car reminded Towa of what he asked Mizuho before, a yellow Evo 5. Towa once asked Mizuho why he didn't have an old Evo instead of a Probox, it turns out that he already did.

"Are all of these your cars, Noda-san?" Towa was flabbergasted, there were so many cars in this place, and a lot of them so expensive that made him realize how loaded Mizuho actually was.

"Well, no, some of them are my dad's. Like the Ferraris. I don't like Ferrari." Mizuho replied, and it made Towa even more curious.

"Who's your dad?"

"That's a weird question." Mizuho smiled sheepishly trying to avoid answering.

"No, really, why does your dad own 2 Ferraris? Who is he?"

Towa just knew that a guy with one Ferrari would be someone important, a guy with two, one being a Testarossa, would not be someone he had never heard of.

"Well, do you know any other Noda in computing?" Instead of Mizuho answering directly, he went with a guessing game.

"There's one that I would have guessed so." Towa replied.

"And which one is that?" Mizuho smirked.

"Hiroto Noda?"

"Well you're certainly knowledgeable."

It should have been a surprise to Towa, but somehow it made so much sense considering everything he knew about Mizuho. Hiroto Noda founded one of the biggest game companies in Japan, and he's still a household name in the computer geek circle. The guy's obviously a bit secretive about his life, but the story fits.

Then it's the more unexpected cars. Weirdly enough, the most numerous types of cars that were in there were the more obscure oddballs. There's a black Nissan Leopard F31 Turbo that was parked alongside a white Toyota Soarer MZ21, both immaculate. There's a pink Crown that was a special edition a few years back. There's also a really ordinary car like this black Mazda Persona and a white Y31 Cima.

The bikes were cool too, there's not many of them but they were all pretty amazing to see. Towa didn't know much about bikes, but he knew enough about a few of them, a Honda CX650 Turbo, and a Suzuki RE5. A Turbo bike, and a Rotary bike. Really rare and really special.

As they walked through the inside, a car caught Towa's attention quite a bit, even if it was a completely ordinary car that kind of didn't fit in any of the categories. It was not exactly a shopping car, it was a sports car, but not unusual, special, or rare. Well it did become more rare today, but back in the days they were so common you don't look at them twice.

Why Towa was taken in by it so much, was the fact that it was a white Eunos Roadster. The NA Roadster. It was at this exact moment, Towa realized why Mizuho had so much synergy with him.

"Is that yours too?" Towa pointed at the old white Roadster, possibly a 30 year old car at this point.

"Yeah, it used to be my mom's car. Bought brand new, first lot after launch, Heisei 1. It later became my first car." Mizuho understood why Towa singled out that car.

"Amazing... It still looks brand new..."

Towa couldn't help but admire it, a perfect condition, first year, Eunos Roadster. It had quite a few mods done to it as well, but not too obvious from the outside. Lowered suspension and fitted with classic SSR Formula Mesh wheels.

"I've never sold a car I've owned, actually." Mizuho continued, and it amazed Towa even more.

"I guess all of these cars had a story..." Towa commented.

"They do," Mizuho nodded, "the Hakosuka, R32 and Evo 5 were my dad's. The Persona, Cima and Crown were my mom's."

"And you kept them here instead of getting rid?"

"Well they cluttered my dad's house too much, so yeah, it's the perfect place to keep them."

Then, Towa's attention turned to the building itself, it was relatively newly built and kept pretty clean, unlike typical industrial warehouses.

"And I'm sure there's a story to this warehouse as well." Towa commented.

"Oh, it's just that I used to sell a lot more stuff than I do today. Back when I started Noda PC in Autumn 2007, I used to store the stock here." Mizuho explained.

"But the business dried up, and you turned it into a personal warehouse?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

After a moment, Mizuho remembered why they were there, so he quickly pulled Towa along deeper into the warehouse.

"You can admire the cars later, let's go." Mizuho said, and Towa followed.

There's a big room inside the warehouse at the deepest corner of the area, away from the cars. Mizuho and Towa slowly got there, and once inside, Towa was amazed yet again.

There's all kinds of things in here, mostly memorabilia from the past. Racing trophies, game cabinets, bigger collectibles that wouldn't fit in the PC Shop. There was also some gym equipment and a racing sim, which was hastily installed.

"Ever driven on a simulator before, Wakisaka-san?" Mizuho asked, as Towa stared at the system in wonderment.

"No, Noda-san, never before."

It had triple screens, Moza R9 wheelbase, dedicated shifter and handbrake, decent custom pedal set although not to the same quality as Mizuho's new setup at home. It's also connected to the great looking sound system.

"Do you train on these, Noda-san?" Towa asked, he was very curious about it.

"I do, yeah. Almost everyday." Mizuho replied, and it was a surprise to Towa, he didn't expect Mizuho to be a keen sim racer mainly because of his age.

To Towa, his view was that these simulator were still a bit of a 'toy', he knew that most actual race car drivers now use the similar system in order to train for a long time now, but he still couldn't really get away from the general impression, as he had never used one before.

"It's incredibly similar to how a real car feels, but you have to get used to it, it depends a lot on the person."

If Mizuho was not the one telling him this, Towa wouldn't believe it in a million years.

Towa got seated in the sim rig, and Mizuho went and prepared it, turning the computer and the wheelbase on, opening the game, Assetto Corsa, and selecting the track and car.

The track that he chose was a surprise to Towa, it was a replica of the Tsukuba Fruits Line.

"Ehhhh? Really?" Towa said, looking quite bewildered.

"Yep, model converted from In◯ti◯l ◯ Arcade, actually," Mizuho replied, scratching his chin before continuing, "it's decent enough to learn the layout, but there are some key differences. Most of the course is way too wide, some corner radius doesn't translate well, and the elevation also is way too shallow, but you know what, the time difference between the real run and in the simulator is surprisingly small."

"Is the run in the simulator faster than in real, Noda-san?"

"That's the perception, right? And you'd be right. Not only from course inaccuracies, but also from the lack of fear with the ability to reset."

The car choice was another surprise, it was the Mazda MX-5 ND Cup Car, a bit like Towa's real car, but of course a racing version that had a few key differences.

"Eh, I don't have the time to model your real car for now because it's too sudden, but I guess it drives similarly enough." Mizuho continued, Towa was still in wonderment.

"What do I have to know, Noda-san? Before starting?" Towa turned and asked, eyes widened from determination.

"Oh, the MX-5 Cup Car has sequential Sadev transmission, the first gear is very long and the ratios are extremely close 1 through 6. Try to use the shifter, it's opposite from what you'd think. Forward is down, reverse is up."

Mizuho then demonstrated by pushing the gear lever on the left side of the rig.

"Just get used to the controls first, I don't expect you to do it quickly, but don't give up easily unless you're motion sick." Mizuho continued.

Towa obliged, and Mizuho sat beside him to observe.

It was indeed, pretty damn difficult. The gearbox was not the difficult bit though, Towa got the hang of it pretty quickly and liked the close ratio very much once it got going.

The first roadblock was, as there's no sense of speed, at first Towa didn't brake for corners at all.

The steering feel was indeed surprisingly similar to real life if it's a car with too much power steering assist, even when the force feedback was turned right up to where Towa felt was about right for the car.

Just adjusting his mind to the fact that he needed to brake in order to turn was difficult, but Towa persevered. He was getting the hang of it by the half hour mark, and was able to start running properly.

Then, Towa hit the second roadblock, as there's no sense of speed, Towa thought there's no way to know how much to turn before that turn would actually be made. This meant Towa had to remember the braking points on the course, as he couldn't use the feel alone as he always did.

After that, Towa hit the third roadblock, it was the fact that there's no g-force that Towa could feel from his hip in the seat, which was how he felt if the car was oversteering, and was how he was taught from Koichi Sasagawa.

There's no other way to describe it, but that to transition from real life to simulation was fucking difficult, but Towa was still determined to get it.

Until he had a doubt in his mind about one thing.

"Noda-san, would driving in the simulation give me bad habits in real life?" Towa asked, sounding pretty concerned about it.

"Eh? Why would you think that?" Mizuho asked back as he was quite confused.

"I feel like I'm predicting what the car would be doing more than feeling what it'd actually be doing. The feelings that I could get from it are incredibly accurate, but those that are lacking are very noticeable."

"I personally don't find it to be the case, and I don't think you'd be either."

That answer sounded like Mizuho didn't really know the answer, but then again, Towa reminded himself that most real life racers use the same set up to train now. Only a few old racers before the technology became good enough would not do the same.

It took nearly an hour before Towa felt he was able to drive on the simulator properly, and somehow, he was getting very quick on it.

Towa found that the inaccuracies in the simulation course model itself was not significant enough to be an issue, as the racing line was still similar to what he knew even if it was not exactly the same. Course acclimatization was not the point of this exercise anyway as Towa knew the Fruits Line well enough to not need to learn it.

Mizuho kept quiet though, and let Towa keep running for hours, observing every move and giving a little pointer if he felt like he was stuck.

"You're actually pretty great at trail braking, who taught you that?" Mizuho commented, as he saw Towa enter one of the hairpin.

"Actually... I think I read about it on the internet and tried it myself, Sasagawa-sensei never mentioned anything." Towa replied, still focusing on driving, but he found it to not be difficult multi-tasking.

Mizuho knew Towa had a great sense of vehicle dynamics, but he didn't realize how great it really was. Trail braking was not something you can teach by explaining alone, because most people don't actually understand how it translates to practical use. For Towa to learn it himself and be able to use it, that's something only a talented person would be able to do.

The time was getting faster and faster, and Towa was now a whole lot quicker on the simulator than in real life.

"Oh, actually, you know what. I should set you a benchmark." Mizuho suddenly said, and it surprised Towa as it seemed like something he'd do before he ran.

"Okay then."

Towa swapped positions with Mizuho, and was now observing how he was driving the simulation, on the same course, in the same car.

Weirdly enough, Towa didn't notice any difference to his run at all, but at the end, there was around 3 seconds difference between the two, despite Mizuho quickly rushing through 3 runs.

"Okay, that should be good enough." Mizuho got out of the seat as he was saying.

Towa was quite confused, where was this 3 second difference? He looked absolutely perplexed by it.

"Are you wondering why there's so much difference between my run and yours?" Mizuho noticed, so he asked preemptively.

"Yes." Towa answered.

"It's just optimisation, braking point, throttle out of corner, better line, less steering where needed, more steering where required. Trust me when I say I've driven this course in real life for ten thousand runs, it's not an exaggeration. It might be more in this simulator."

Towa was pretty astonished by what Mizuho said, as he knew it was indeed not an exaggeration. There's no way he'd be able to do that if he was.

"Don't be discouraged, some actual racing drivers would be around the same level as you now." Mizuho reassured Towa.

Towa was getting quicker although not by as much margin as before. By lunch time, he was around 1.5 seconds off Mizuho's pace.

Unbeknownst to Towa, something confirmed Mizuho's suspicion, and he was glad to see it. So he finally revealed the reason for this exercise.

"You didn't lose focus once, and you did nearly 30 runs in one session without resting." Mizuho said.

"But I could do that because it's not as physically exhausting as driving a real car." Towa contradicted what Mizuho already knew, which made him sneer.

"It's not the physical toll I'm worried about. It's your focus." Mizuho explained.

"But would it be the same if I was driving a real car?"

"No, of course not, but you know what's the difference between real running at the Fruits Line and a simulator?"

Towa shook his head.

"It takes 15 minutes to drive back to the starting point, it takes no time to reset in the simulation." Mizuho answered, and Towa got it.

Despite it being more demanding in real life, there's a cool down for the mental toll it'd take.

"I'd say, you should practice more and more, and you should set up the battle," Mizuho looked at the calendar on his phone, "either 10 or 11 next month. You know what, Today would be ideal, but it's probably too early."

"I only need that long to practice?" Towa was curious.

"Nope, in fact I'd say you're pretty much ready to race, and there's a chance to win even right now." Mizuho answered, which confused Towa quite a lot.

"So why 10 or 11 August? Or Today, even?"

"Because you'd definitely win then, not just probably going to win."

Towa was even more surprised by the confidence Mizuho had in him right now, but that didn't really answer why those specific dates would be important.

What's so special about today?

It was just a hot, dry summer day, pretty much the hottest day of the year. It's been pretty hot all summer long with minimal rain. The air-conditioning in the room was running at full chat, otherwise it would be unbearable.

Was it about the weather? Or was it about Sunao Morita himself? Towa rolled around a few possibilities in his head, and in the process of elimination... Towa realized what Mizuho wanted.