The area around the Ibaraki Prefecture Flower Park sign was so crowded with runners from all over, nearly everyone in the Discord group came here from Towa's message.

Sunao arrived early, and yet there were already people there, but none was driving. They all just stood there, looking forward to the battle tonight.

The atmosphere felt different, it was something that the younger people didn't understand until they were there, while the oldies were feeling nostalgic, especially Ikuo, who was around when the Fruits Line was rampant with street racers.

Iori and Norio didn't expect this many people to turn up, at least 30 cars all scattered around on the side of the road. Shigehiro even made the point of asking his friend for a favor to stand in for him, just to be there.

Seiki too, skipped work, he was worried about Towa ever since the message, and he also knew the feeling that Sunao had after the battle with Mizuho. It made him really nervous of the way these two people he knew would clash on the course.

All of them thought the same thing, something that's going to happen tonight, would be something very special. It's going to be an experience that the people who were there won't ever forget.

"Hey, who do you think is going to win?" Shigehiro asked Iori and Norio, as they stood around as a group.

"I have absolutely no idea." Iori answered, she shook her head to emphasize that.

"Considering it's pretty much a stock Roadster, and the rival is a GR Yaris? And that he had already beaten 'Urasawa'? I'm not holding out much hope." Norio answered in an indifferent tone.

Somehow, that observation from Norio made sense, but it made all of them sad. It was disappointing that the fastest guy on the Fruits Line might be a guy from Maebashi. Despite this being a hobby, a fun thing for few enthusiasts, the pride in their abilities were still there speaking as a group.

Towa felt really bad for leaving Sumire cold like that, only once he drove away from their apartment and into the city. He realized that he didn't want to act like that to her at all.

At the same time, the event of tonight was initiated by him, he couldn't bear the surefire disappointment if he were to postpone it, or not turn up. Not with the people in the runners group, no, it was the disappointment he imagined from Mizuho Noda. Even if he said he didn't care about it, Towa felt that deep down, he did. Why else would Mizuho care about making sure Towa was ready for it, or maintaining the Roadster to its best condition?

Yet, Towa felt really guilty about Sumire, and he told himself no matter what he had to do, he'd make it up for her later.

Towa was observing the Oshito branch FamilyMart, and was surprised that it appeared to be quiet, which gave him a false impression that no one really cared about the battle. Of course, that meant he was in for quite a shock, once he reached the peak of the Tsukuba Fruits Line.

The amount of people there was unreal, and all were making ways for him to go through to Sunao.

People still couldn't believe how normal the white Roadster RF looked and sounded, it was still on standard wheels, but it was an incredibly fast entry to the Geo Timer leaderboard. Yet, was it really a match for a car such as the GR Yaris being driven by someone who's really well regarded as one of the finest runners of all Kanto?

A lot of people who were there tonight knew Sunao Morita, not many people knew Towa Wakisaka.

No matter how you look at it, Towa was the underdog.

"We finally met, huh." Sunao told Towa as he stepped out of the Roadster.

"Yes, Morita-san." Towa replied.

People were now crowding around the two to observe, which made both of them very nervous, it's a situation neither of them ever imagined would happen in real life.

"I guess there's nothing more to it but race." Sunao continued, straight to the point.

"So do you want to lead or to follow first?" Towa preemptively asked.

"I don't know," Sunao shook his head, "does it matter at all?"

Towa couldn't really think of the reason why it would matter either, and both of them contemplated for a while before coming to a similar conclusion.

Sunao reached into his pocket, and found a coin.

"Heads or tails?" Sunao asked, as he was about to toss it.

"Heads I lead, tails you lead." Towa replied.

The coin dropped down onto Sunao's backhand once again with his other hand covering it, he then showed the coin to Towa, and it was tails.

"That's settled then."

The two started walking back to their cars, when Seiki pushed through the crowd in order to approach Towa.

"Hey, Wakisaka!" Seiki called out for Towa's attention, just as he was about to get into the Roadster.

"Oh, how's it going, Seiki?" Towa replied, seemingly calm, but he was just hiding his true emotion.

"I'm fine. Are you alright? You went quiet for weeks and suddenly your message appeared. It really made everyone scramble, you know?"

"I've just been busy, Seiki."

"So, how do you plan to beat Morita-san?"

Towa stopped and thought about it for a sec.

"I'm not going to be able to explain to you in the next minute, would you mind if I leave it until after the race?" Towa answered, and it disappointed Seiki a little bit.

"Ehhh? Is it some super special secretive technique that only a real racer would know?" Seiki was saying in jest, but Towa wasn't in the mood.

"No." Towa shook his head, but had a second thought, "I guess?"

"Well, no matter what happens, I'm on your side, alright? Even if Morita-san is my crew, you are my friend, and friends are above in the hierarchy."

Towa was touched by that, he smiled slightly at Seiki, although it didn't really help him be more confident in this race.

"Thanks, Seiki." Towa replied.

The black GR Yaris lined up ahead of the white Roadster RF under the Flower Park sign, the crowd surrounded the area with intrigue and excitement. The exhaust noise of the GR Yaris overwhelmed the standard exhaust of the Roadster, and no one thought that the match was in any way fair or balanced.

Perhaps that's why the majority of people there were secretly cheering for the Roadster, even if they were with Sunao's group, they kind of wanted the Roadster to win.

The application started the countdown, after Towa confirmed the battle invitation that Sunao sent, the two cars were revving ready to launch away into this fierce battle.

At this moment, it almost as if the time stood still for Towa, he was reciting what Mizuho told him as an advice while he was training. There were many, but Towa remembered all of them to his heart

"You ain't going to close the gap within the first run, don't bother, maintain your pace, don't let it run away." Mizuho said as the first tip.

The GR Yaris launch was indeed menacing, it shot off into the distance with great acceleration from the AWD traction, there's no way the Roadster could match that, Towa just had to hope for the best.

The two cars quickly approached the first real corner, mid-low speed left turn that'd lead to a slow speed hairpin right. The GR Yaris got a bit of a gap until then, but Towa quickly realized his advantage.

Mizuho had already told him about it, the Roadster would be much, MUCH faster in the corners, despite the GR Yaris having way wider tires than it. This was simply the effect of the 300kg weight difference between them.

"Know your strength." was Mizuho's second tip, "You can't match its power or traction, obviously, but it wouldn't matter if all the power could be transferred to the road. It's not a 1,000 horsepower F1 car, it's a 180 something horsepower Roadster."

Towa had this idea in mind before that he'd not be able to match the corner exit speed of the GR Yaris, but that wasn't true at all. The GR Yaris had the acceleration advantage no matter the situation, but on the corner exit where Towa thought it'd be superior, it was somehow not.

As long as Towa kept up the speed, and didn't lose it in any case, the GR Yaris could only gap the Roadster in the acceleration zone, of which on the Tsukuba Fruits Line, there were five, two of which were true acceleration zone that would make an actual difference, the rest were not long enough to matter as long as he kept up where he was good at.

Towa did wonder quite a bit as to why Sunao's driving felt sloppy, as Mizuho described it, he didn't understand until now that he's looking directly. The rhythm was weird, compared to someone like himself who kept to the driving line that felt right for each type of corner. Sunao didn't seem to care all that much. This idea went against all track driving knowledge that he had learnt, so he asked Mizuho about it.

"Great that you're asking, knowing your opponent is another great strategy." Mizuho's third tip, "Sunao was rally trained, he never really cared about track driving, and he started from mountain roads which are basically rally stages. He wasn't trained to stick to one line, he was trained to use the lines that's available at the time."

This made little sense to Towa when Mizuho first told him, and it wasn't until now that it was fully realized.

In some way, the GR Yaris enabled this sort of driving as well, it was way forgiving on corner entry stability, mid corner grip, and great traction on corner exit. It was not as agile as many taut them to be, but for such a heavy car, it's pretty amazing.

Towa, in comparison, had to keep his wits about the driving way more than Sunao was, as he couldn't make a single mistake or the speed loss would be catastrophic. A single mistake from Towa could cost him way more than if Sunao made a mistake. This fact also made Towa realize why Mizuho made him do the training he did for the past week. To not lose focus, and to maintain stamina in order to not get tired out and make mistakes.

By the first acceleration zone, the gap between the two cars were nearly identical at the start, but GR Yaris started pulling away once it's actually able to use the extra horsepower.

Towa kept coming back to other tips that Mizuho gave him, it's one that they were partly banking on this entire race against.

"Smooth driving is faster, that's what Koichi told you, right? Not only is it faster, it also saves tires, even on the mountain roads. If you cannot catch up, don't waste your tires. Wait for the right moment to attack."

Towa got why Mizuho told him to choose today for a race, as he told him the day they met was the perfect day; It was the weather report.

10th of August would be one of the hottest days of the year, so was the week before that. The temperature would rise to around 35°C at noon, and drop to at the lowest 27°C during the night.

Currently, the ambient temperature was hovering around 29 to 30°C, even if it was 10 PM. The day was hot as all hell. It was not a race of speed, Mizuho knew from the start that it had to be a race of attrition, the only way for the Roadster to beat the GR Yaris.

Although that required something else rather than the car or the tires being able to make it, Towa had to as well. It was not easy running hard in such weather, but training helped to alleviate some of that trouble.

By the end of the first run, the gap was maintained to the same level, and Towa didn't go hardest to his ability yet, Mizuho told him that it was not to be won in one round.

The second run was commencing, as soon as both cars got up to the starting point once again.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"What was the result of the first run?" Ikuo asked Norio, who stood by looking at his phone. It was not a feature many people used before, but all users of Geo Timer application could check the running race result going on in the area at the time.

"A draw." Norio replied.

"Huh, I didn't expect that." Ikuo mused, and it made all within the hearing distance slightly curious.

"What did you expect, Imamichi-san?" Iori asked.

"I was surprised that the Roadster could maintain the gap at all." Ikuo replied, "That car was much less modified, and clearly had a normal engine. Granted, it's being driven by someone pretty amazing."

The next run might've been with a swapped position, but the status quo was not broken. It was interesting for Sunao to observe the driving of Towa, and he was intrigued as well.

That Roadster was fast in the corners, ridiculously fast. It was definitely faster than the Probox in entry, mid-corner, and exit speed, but at the same time, Sunao could follow easily, it was clear that Towa didn't use the full line yet.

It made Sunao slightly annoyed, because he felt Towa was holding back.

If one were to compare Towa's driving to Mizuho, which Sunao already observed, it was indeed pretty similar, but Towa was clearly not as good as Mizuho, even to an amateur like him.

With that thought, Sunao pushed harder, in order to close the gap and get at least one win, which would make the next run much easier.

The Geo Timer Application did show how much of a gap there was between the two cars, and Towa had been keeping a close eye on it, but not so much that it distracted him. In fact, as long as the screen was gray, it was okay. Towa didn't go fully in order to run away yet, because it was obvious there's no way he could.

Yet, Towa had to make sure that it would not be in the red, and that's difficult with Sunao pushing harder. What neither of them knew was that Sunao pushed way harder than Towa on the first run, although there was a bit of complacency about it.

The second run also ended in a draw, Towa nearly lost out as he slightly screwed up the last turn, but it was enough to stay a draw.

The car got back up to the starting point again, with position swapped, and the crowd were getting slightly impatient.

"It's a draw again." A racer grumbled.

"What? The GR Yaris couldn't close the gap?" Another racer was surprised.

"It's not normal for a battle to go on for more than 2 or 3 runs, right? At this rate we'll definitely need 4."

This was something Towa expected, and it was according to Mizuho's brief as well.

"In the 3rd and 4th run, you can definitely use more of the saved up tires. Go harder, try to close the gap, put the pressure on him. But even if you don't manage to do it, stay calm. Remember that you have the advantage. Keep an eye out for the acceleration and traction loss of the GR Yaris." Mizuho told Towa as the next tip.

Towa did it as told, he went slightly harder, but not to the maximum attack level yet, and it was clear that on his 3rd attempt, he could close up to the GR Yaris more than the 1st run.

What's more important though, was the fact that the GR Yaris didn't pull away in the 5 acceleration zones of the Fruits Line as much as it did before.

It was the heat soak.

On such a hot day, a small turbocharged engine, like the GR Yaris' G16E-GTS engine, would create so much heat that it would be detrimental to the engine performance. The internal combustion engine works better when the intake air temperature is cold, and the turbocharged car is affected way more than a naturally aspirated car, like the Roadster RF's Skyactiv 2.0-liter unit.

The one clear advantage of the GR Yaris was eroding minute by minute, as the run was repeated run after run. There was no break time once the car got back up to the starting point, the next run would be started immediately. All the cooling down was the short, 10 minute run back up, which was not truly cooling down either because there's a hill climb to get to the peak of the course.

This was what Mizuho was mainly banking on, and Towa cottoned on pretty quickly.

Suddenly, it didn't seem such an impossible task anymore to catch up to the GR Yaris, as long as Towa didn't make any mistake.

It was not enough on the 3rd run yet, but Towa was edging closer to the winning gap, he was ready for the 4th run, which he was determined to get the win.

The GR Yaris was following on this run, and Sunao noticed that the Roadster was running differently now by the 3rd acceleration zone, after the hairpin and into the fast right hander that led to the left hairpin.

Towa was using more of the course surface, running into the dirty road shoulder in order to gain some time. Finally, Sunao was excited to see the Roadster being driven to its full capability. He was so excited he didn't mind losing the gap in the moment.

A man and machine, together in perfect harmony. It was, quite simply, beautiful.

That 4th run was possibly the best Towa had ever ran on the Fruits Line, and he did get that win, by slightest of margin. That gave Towa a huge confidence boost, and it made the crowd go wild.

"Eh, seriously?!" Some racers exclaimed excitedly.

"What?" Another asked.

"The Roadster won the 4th round?! By 0.15 of a second gap."

As soon as the information was relayed, the entire group picked up their phone to verify, and it was correct. Towa got the first win.

It meant that as long as he got the second, it'd be a victory.

It felt doable now, once it was done, and it was a feeling indescribable to Towa. It was a success after a long, difficult effort to understand what he needed to do.

Somehow, it made Towa feel like the moment... When Sumire finally agreed to go on a date with him. Towa immediately brushed it off as a stupid thing to think of right now, as they were going to start the 5th run.

Towa reminded himself of what Mizuho told him as the next, and final tip.

"The 5th run is where you attack hard, if I were to guess, Sunao wouldn't expect a loss. If you won the 4th round, he'd be desperate, he'd try to run away. His tires would be spent, and his engine would feel sluggish by now."

Towa got the first win on the 4th round, so it was his chance to close in that gap and take the ultimate prize, the second round win, and the overall victory. Right now, Towa's mind was almost burning from adrenaline, he never felt this excited in a long time, about anything, not just mountain running.

Towa expected it to be easy, he was complacent, but he was reminded that Sunao was not a fool, when the gap during the first half of this run was not closing, despite him driving the hardest, and using all the tires' ability.

Sunao's line was different as well, not just Towa.

Because they'd been running for 5 runs now, Sunao also got into a more concrete rhythm, despite starting off disorganized, it was not something Towa expected, and it threw him off balance a little bit. Yes, in the first acceleration zone, the GR Yaris clearly was slower than the first 4 runs, but with less time being wasted on the corners, somehow, the gap was not closing in as much as Towa wanted.

The eagerness to end it quickly, also made Towa driving more sloppy, he went in way too hard on various corners and paid the price as his speed was not as high as it should be.

It got really bad as the two cars went into the acute, slow speed left turn at the end of the second acceleration zone.

Towa screwed up, big time, as he tried to accelerate hard to not lose the GR Yaris on the weakest part of the track for his Roadster. He had a momentary lapse of concentration.

The Roadster RF went into that braking zone way too late, slightly passed the road sign on the right, which was agreed by most racers as the point of no return. The only thing that saved Towa from crashing, was the fact that the Roadster was not powerful enough to gain too much speed, but Towa also lost a lot on corner entry, which meant the GR Yaris could pull away as well.

By the end of the 5th run, as much as Towa tried to crawl back from that mistake, the gap was nearly 1 second. It was a devastating loss compared to the elation of a slight gap that he pulled on the 4th run.

That meant Towa's confidence was gone in an instant, and it meant that whoever got the next win, would be victorious. The hard fought advantage was gone. It's now a sudden death match.

The pressure was on Towa, hard, it was incredibly stressful and he struggled to remain calm. Mizuho didn't tell Towa anything about what he should do next with his driving after this point. Whatever's gonna happen next, it had to come purely from Towa's instinct.

The situation was really bad, but the runners who gathered today were just tensed, they all had no idea who's going to win this as it was a dead heat.

Even Norio had to pick up the cigarette to smoke, as he was washed with anxiety, he wanted Towa to win, same as Iori or Shigehiro, but he was not sure that it was possible, as the gap on this win of Sunao was way wider than the first win for Towa.

The 6th run, Towa would be leading once again, and no matter what, he cannot make a single mistake.

It was the most demanding, and the most difficult run Towa had ever had, not because of the physical demand, but because of what's at risk here. If he messed up even just a little bit, it was game over.

There was actually another piece of advice Mizuho gave to Towa, as a conclusion to all of this, but Towa chose to not think about it, he selectively forgot about it.

"If you lose, who cares, you aren't less of a racer and no one would think of it that way. It's a Roadster against a GR Yaris."

It was meant as a tool for Towa to not think about it too hard, and to calm down, but Towa was not receptive to it. He was determined to win, he had that flame in him that's burning way too bright to extinguish with common sense.

The two cars launched away on the 6th run, and Towa was hyper focused on it.

In the more technical first half of the Fruits Line, Sunao felt something that concerned him quite a bit. It was not quite obvious on the first 5 runs, but on this 6th run, it's becoming a factor now.

Sunao's tires were overheating, more specifically, the front tires. He was struggling to turn the GR Yaris into the corners much more than before, and it came in so suddenly as well. Like the grip level dropped off a cliff.

Still, Sunao was pretty confident about it, he could always remain calm in these sorts of situations, and while he didn't know that he was more familiar with the Fruits Line, he knew that he could still match the pace of the Roadster.

The power dropped off significantly as well, the GR Yaris was heat soaked so much that the acceleration indeed felt frustrating. There's no shove like it did the previous 2 runs, and for whatever reasons, it seemed that the Roadster was not as affected by this, it frustrated Sunao even more.

It was still winnable, but Sunao didn't have much time.

Sunao elected to push hard, rotate the rear end more with slight pendulum movement on corner entry, and more aggressive turn in.

The tires didn't have to last much longer, just for another run.

Towa's Roadster on the other hand, was almost in its peak performance, the lightweight nature of it meant it was much easier on the tires, and he could remain consistent.

It seemed that after 6 runs, the two cars were now approaching an equilibrium, the point where the machine and driver combination didn't matter too much anymore, and that whoever made the first mistake, would be the one who paid the price.

Sunao was actually gaining on Towa, especially on the acceleration zone, Towa's driving was really getting more and more all over the place with every corner.

That was, until the technical section within the latter half of the course, on the mid-speed left turn, before the never ending left turn that led to a hairpin right.

Inside the GR Yaris, there was a sudden bonging noise, which startled Sunao so much, and it not only made him lose focus, there was a bigger issue on hand right now.

'AWD System Overheated

Switching to 2WD Mode'

It was a death sentence for Sunao's attack.

Once the two cars reached the hairpin, on the corner exit, the GR Yaris was not able to accelerate off the corner at all, because the front wheels were spinning, and the power wasn't being sent to the rear.

It was game over.

Towa won.

"Hey, what the hell?! The Roadster pulled nearly 6 seconds away from the GR Yaris?!" A racer shouted so loud that it caught the attention of the whole area up the mountain.

"No way! What happened?!" Another asked.

"I don't know!"

Everyone there was rejoicing, even the group of people who came with Sunao tonight, it didn't matter if they were affiliated with him, everybody here tonight was hoping, to a different extent, that the underdog would win, and it did. It's somehow more satisfying that the low powered Roadster RF would beat the GR Yaris.

The happiness was mixed with a massive surprise though, as any upset win would do.

Norio and Shigehiro were speechless, while Iori was so happy she cried a little.

Towa quickly drove the car to the Oshito FamilyMart, where there were no racers waiting, and surprisingly, Sunao followed him into it.

"Phwoaar, that was really tough, wasn't it?" Sunao was surprisingly jovial, considering he lost.

"It was, I want some drink, let's go get some." Towa quickly rushed into the convenience store, almost running away.

The two bought a bottle of water each, before they reconvened at their cars.

"Fucking hell, I didn't expect to feel this way to lose. I'm not pissed off at all." Sunao was still agitated by adrenaline, like he wasn't finished, even if his car was.

"Yeah, why did you suddenly back off anyway?" Towa was very curious about it.

"Shit, you know what is a big problem with the GR Yaris." Sunao seemed frustrated with the answer.

"What is it?"

"The AWD system overheated. I had it happen sometimes, but I got the time to cool the car off so it was never an issue. I sort of forgot about it."

Towa realized how lucky he was that it happened, because once he reflected on that last run, how badly he was losing focus at that point, there was no way he could've won if it didn't happen.

"You know, Wakisaka-san." Sunao looked at Towa, his expression was serious, "With this level of driving, you could definitely pursue a career as an actual race car driver."

"Eh? No way, Morita-san. I'm not that good." Towa dismissed the praise, and it made Morita sneer.

"Don't be humble when you're this good. It's wasteful. Own it."

"If I am that good, you definitely are as well."

Sunao chuckled once Towa threw the praise back at him.

"You're right, but sometimes we don't get to choose our life path, huh?" Sunao replied.

Afterward, Sunao started walking back to the GR Yaris.

"I'm going back up the mountain, are you going to as well?" Sunao asked Towa, but he shook his head.

"Nope, I'm done, I'm going home." Towa replied.

Sunao gave him a small salute gesture, before he got back into that car, and drove away.

Towa was absolutely exhausted, it was the hardest thing he'd ever done. 6 runs, 2 minutes 10 seconds each, didn't sound like a lot, but when it's at constant full throttle, it was way harder than the simulation was to maintain concentration.

Towa just wanted to go home and lie down, he got back into the Roadster and sat there for a bit, just to breath in and out to calm down.

Then, Towa noticed that the clock was nearly striking midnight, and he remembered something.

He told Sumire he'd get home by 11 PM.

Shit.

Towa drove the Roadster back to his Mito apartment quickly, disregarding all the speed cameras, and luckily there wasn't one. He hoped that Sumire would already have gone to bed by this point, he was too tired for an argument.

The white Roadster parked in the designated spot, as it usually did, and by that point it was nearly 1 AM.

Towa quickly rushed upstairs, keys ready, in his mind he constantly imagined all the things Sumire would chide him for, and he knew it wouldn't be pretty.

Towa was genuinely sorry about it, he was hoping that after all this matter with Sunao was done, he'd stop going up the mountain all the time to make up for it, and maybe, just maybe, he'd finally propose to her.

Yeah, Towa nearly forgot that he already bought the engagement ring, and he hid it in the Roadster's glove compartment, as he knew Sumire wouldn't be looking for it there. Well, he wouldn't do it tonight, but the elation he was feeling made him look forward to the moment. He even thought of it and everything how he wanted to do it. Sumire was never about the theatre, she'd like it to be simple.

Towa turned the key to his apartment door slowly, so as to not disturbed Sumire in case she actually already went to bed.

The apartment was completely dark inside, as expected, this was usual when Towa came home from running until very late. Sumire always went to bed at a relatively normal time, unlike Towa.

Towa slowly sneaked inside, getting to the bedroom door, and slowly opened it to observe if Sumire was actually sleeping, so he could quietly shower before going to bed.

It was dark, so Towa couldn't see that clearly, but he saw something weird.

The bed was still neatly made, no one was sleeping on it.

Towa quickly rushed inside the bedroom immediately, turning on the light and saw that, indeed, Sumire was not there.

He quickly picked up the phone to see if there's any message from her, there wasn't.

Then he rushed out of the bedroom, turned on the light, and looked for something unusual. There was something on the dinner table, a small post-it note stuck to the middle that read,

'Don't worry, I'm with my parents. Don't try to contact me, I will not answer.'

Suddenly, Towa felt this sharp pain throughout his body, once he realized what actually happened.

He may have won the battle, but he lost something way more important to him tonight...