Several months later.

“Dad, don’t be so dramatic, it’s only Tokyo. You’ve been to Tokyo so many times before.”

Ippei was saying with a smile at the sight of his father, who started to cry.

They were sitting in their house in Takita, Tsuchiura. Ippei’s bags were already packed ready for the journey to the big city.

“I know I know. I didn’t know I’d feel like this. I’m sorry.” Mizuho told his son, who didn’t mind at all.

“You can visit me anytime, right? I can even come back here pretty much anytime I want.” Ippei reassured his father.

“Hey, that’s no good. Focus on studying! Especially with Sachiko-chan being with you, dammit!”

Ippei had to laugh at what his father was saying. It was obvious that he tried to be funny to divert the attention away from the fact he was being emotional right now.

Ippei didn’t expect to be able to do it either. To enroll into Geidai, achieving his goal. It was sweeter when he realized that Sachiko managed to get into Todai. Both managed to enroll in the course that they wanted.

It still felt surreal, especially to Ippei. He had always been a bright kid, but never with an aim in his life. He found that once he had a reason to, he could achieve anything.

All he needed was a push in the right direction.

Which was exactly what he got when he met Sachiko.

For that, he was grateful, and it was something he felt couldn’t really be repaid for, ever. He could only promise to himself that however long they’d still be together, he was ready to support her in anything he could. Just like he’s sure she’d be willing to do.

“Shall we go now, dad? Sachiko’s waiting.” Ippei reminded his father of the time, which made Mizuho realize they were running pretty late.

“Oh shit, yeah.” Mizuho swore unintentionally, he felt bad even if his son was now a proper adult.

Sachiko was going to travel to Tokyo alone on the train, when Ippei told her Mizuho offered to drive months before they were supposed to move. That’s why Mizuho would be picking her up from her house. He had to make the journey for Ippei, why not add another passenger to make it more worthwhile?

It was the least Mizuho could do for them.

—

“Are you nervous?” Mizuho was asking.

The man on the other side was Towa Wakisaka, a long way from home, getting ready to do something he never expected he’d be able to ever do. Of course he was nervous.

Today was the first race of this year's Japan Formula 4 Championship.

“Remember what I told you, right? You can do it. Most of these people you’re racing against are gentlemen drivers. You aren’t all that different to them.”

In the paddock of the world famous Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka prefecture, Towa Wakisaka was sitting in the quiet corner, while Mizuho was standing there, lecturing him.

It’s the race track that hosted incredible race series throughout all these years. So many famous names have run here. But it was the first time for Towa to actually do it, as a racing driver.

“Doesn’t that mean I have too much money backing me relative to my skill, Noda-san?”

Towa's question did make Mizuho laugh.

“Look, you’ll be fine. You’ve had just as good training as anyone here could have.” Mizuho tried reassuring Towa, but he only sighed.

Mizuho thought it was normal for any guy suddenly going into a professional racing series. Nervousness tends to do that.

“Is your family coming?” Mizuho changed the subject, and Towa seemed to perk up slightly.

“Oh yeah.” Towa answered with a smile, “They should be coming here pretty soon. My mom and dad, Sumire-chan, her dad.”

“I saw your friend here as well, the guy who drives a white WRX.”

“Seiki?... Oh yeah he said he’d come as well.”

“So many people who care about you’ve come to watch. Are you looking to let them down?”

Towa's eyes widened, he appeared quite annoyed by that statement.

“No! Of course not! I know there’s a lot riding on this. Tatsumi-san, Sasagawa-san, Hashimoto-san, even you. I’m not looking to disappoint any of them.”

The 3 old racers and another investor they knew all chipped in, relatively speaking, a tiny sum of money to buy a seat for Towa to race in the Japan F4 series within a relatively small, but punching above its weight, racing team.

With how much he impressed during the winter Simcademy program, it was an easy decision to make.

“You’ve had experience running wheel to wheel. You know how to be ruthless in a race. You can handle these snappy, twitchy open wheelers. You aren’t going to disappoint.” Mizuho said.

Towa stared at Mizuho without responding, he appeared to be pretty glad that Mizuho had that much confidence in him.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Besides, Motohiro is your race engineer. If you mess up he’ll give you so much an earful that you make up for your mistake regardless. So I’m not worried. Why are you worried?” Mizuho continued, half in jest, half serious.

“Eh?” Towa appeared incredulous, as he never thought Motohiro to be anything but kind.

“I’m not joking. He never ever stopped mentioning that one time I messed up and spun into a sand trap. The tires were cold!”

At that point, Towa’s family walked into the paddock, and all were looking incredibly excited to be there.

“Towa-chan! Do your best!” Towa’s father immediately shouted as soon as he saw him. It made him cringe, but still glad that he was there.

Sumire then walked up to Towa, holding him with her arms and gave him a tiny kiss.

“Do your best, alright?” Sumire said to Towa, still being held in her arms.

All that nervousness went away in a blink of an eye.

Towa Wakisaka was now a bonafide racing driver. He’d never expected that his life would come to this. Even right now he was in a racing suit, with his family surrounding him in the paddock, and Mizuho Noda standing there looking pretty determined. It still felt unreal.

If Towa could go back in time and talk to his 15 year old self, would he believe what he’d achieve 10 years later?

Towa didn’t think that he would…

—

“I never quite got it. Why would anyone bother running when the course record is pretty much impossible to beat?”

Spring finally arrived this year, and the racers of Ibaraki gathered again in Oshito, in the carpark of FamilyMart at the foot of the Tsukuba Mountain.

A new racer asked the above question to Iori, Shigehiro and Norio, who set up the first meeting of the racers for this year. They had never seen this guy before. He was, perhaps a bit cliché, a young 2nd year Tsukuba University student driving an old blue Toyota 86.

Iori only gave a slight smile, knowing that this naive young guy still had a lot to learn about the way of runners.

Despite what ‘Urasawa’ announced last year, the Geo Timer application did not disappear.

“Does it matter?” Iori asked, a bit facetious, but it was a serious question.

“I don’t know, Yamada-san…” That new racer replied, exasperated, “I’m still doing only 2:40s. How can a guy like ‘Urasawa’ do 2:08.33? I don't even have a vague idea.”

“If you only compare yourself to the best, you’ll only be discouraged. The way to improve is to focus on yourself and have fun.” Norio added his opinion.

“He’s right, you know. I’d done 2:40s as well when I first started.” Iori continued.

“I think my first run was 3 minutes because I understeer at one corner and nearly crash…” Shigehiro added.

The young new racer didn’t seem convinced, but he was willing to listen.

“So what was the car that ‘Urasawa’ drove that did 2:08?” The young racer asked, very curious about it.

Iori was about to answer, but she stopped as she never quite believed what most people assumed to be the case.

“We don’t know.” Iori finally said, and it disappointed the young racer.

“Ehhhh? Really? I thought you guys would know. Considering you’ve been racing here for ages.” The young racer mused.

“Well we do know what he usually drives, but we don’t think it was that car.” Shigehiro added to what Iori said. Which made the young racer even more curious.

“Is he usually in a fast car? A legendary car that seemed unbelievable? A race car perhaps, Yamamoto-san?”

“No.” Shige shook his head in reply, “It’s uh…”

“It’s the Toyota Probox.”

Once the young racer heard the answer from Norio, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He thought they were messing with him.

“A hybrid car powered by gasoline and life energy? Well I guess it makes sense for it to be the fastest machine of Ibaraki…” The young racer continued the joke, thinking it was Iori, Shige and Norio’s intention.

The young racer stopped and observed the three, and saw that they weren’t laughing with him, but appeared bemused. Not what he’d expect if they were messing with him.

“The guy actually drives a Probox?” The young racer asked, his eyebrows frowning as he realized they weren’t joking.

“Yeah.” Iori nodded, still smiling, “And one day, if you ever become good enough, maybe you’ll get to race him as well.”

—

At 1 AM, the complete silence of the night was broken by the sound of a highly tuned 4-cylinder engine roaring and the tires screeching.

It was a yellow Evo 7, modified to within an inch of its life.

Most racers who gathered tonight already dispersed, all of them had a blast on the Tsukuba Fruits Line.

One car arrived after all the others had left. There’s only one goal in its driver’s mind.

2:08.33. The time set by ‘Urasawa’.

Others may have thought differently, but this Evo 7 driver didn’t agree with them.

It seemed quite achievable, he’d been waiting for months for the snow to clear for a chance to run the Fruits Line.

He’s getting closer and closer to it with each and every run.

2:14.07 was the time of his last run.

Right now, the driver was approaching the first acceleration zone, the Evo 7 had nearly 500 horsepower, and yet, it was able to send the power down to the road with its AWD system.

The driver then lost concentration as they noticed shining headlamps through the rear window, reflecting on the rear view mirror.

What car is that? The driver wondered.

Anyway, the straight line was the Evo 7 strength, the guy was sure that they could pull away with the acceleration easily, and that it did.

However, as the Evo 7 turned through the high speed left corner, it lost all of its gap that it gained on the acceleration zone.

By the next hairpin right, the car behind was already right up the Evo’s tail.

“Eh?” The Evo driver exclaimed.

The yellow Evo continued on its run, while the mysterious car behind kept a close distance. No matter what the driver did, it could not pull a gap from that car.

It did make the guy wonder what that car was, and how it was so fast. The headlights were yellowed, like it was a halogen lamp. It was surely an older, cheaper car, considering most modern performance cars have brighter, whiter headlights.

Undeterred, the Evo driver continued on, but that car behind was still there. Very close behind.

On the 4th acceleration zone, that car behind was nearly able to pull alongside, if it was not for the Evo’s tower of power. It seemed that the cornering speed of that car was so superior, even on corner exit, which didn’t make sense to the Evo driver.

The Evo driver was so nervous that he forgot what the line for the next corner was, and he went in with quite an overspeed. Not enough to lose control, but it was enough that on the wide radius, never ending left turn, it couldn’t block the inside of the corner.

That meant the car behind was able to pull alongside, and the Evo had to concede that it lost.

At that moment, the driver was so shocked by what they saw.

It was an old, worn out looking, white Toyota Probox.

That image was so surprising to the Evo driver, that he decided to lift immediately and let it go.

“No way…” The Evo driver muttered, it was an unbelievable sight he just saw.

The Evo driver had heard about this car before from quite a few people he knew from the world of mountain running…

The legend is still running, and it will continue to run.

For its driver, still continued to seek something special…

FIN