Tuesday Evening, Norio Hattori knew that the presentation program was a failure.

There were 3 more schools he needed to give a presentation to. What can Norio really do? Say no? He might as well have thrown away his career then, although right now it's stagnating anyway.

Norio was resenting pretty much everything in his life right now, but there's literally nothing he could do other than get through it. Then again, there's no evaluation from the work he's doing, so that's something at least. It's not like the university needs any more promotion, and the students who were interested could just find out about it in the very detailed internet articles.

Norio was walking back to his Suzuki Swift Sport, wondering if the red Civic Type R Euro that he decided to park right next to was still there.

It was, which actually made Norio quite happy. He was considering taking a look more at it now that he's finished with all the work. Then he decided that he would.

This Civic FN2 was quite well tuned and clearly being driven hard all the time. The tires were well worn on the shoulder which indicate that whoever owned this car, knew how to drive it hard and fast. The brakes were large both in caliper and rotor size, and the pad dust was quite heavily caked on the front wheels.

Compared to Norio's Swift Sport, which was more subtly modified, it's also lowered with the front wheels aligned with aggressive toe-out and negative camber. The wheels, however, were still the standard 17 inches item but wrapped in also extremely grippy Dunlop Direzza ZIII. The brakes were just uprated pads. All of this meant that apart from the stance, it looked like a standard yellow Swift Sport.

Norio could only wonder if this Civic FN2 was only a Tsukuba Circuit runner, which would be fun as well, or also a street racer like he is with his Swift Sport. But Norio was not going to wait for the owner of this car to come back and ask. That would be very awkward, especially here at the school. He just got in his car, and drove home.

Meanwhile, in the Computer Technology club room, Isao Tanigawa was doing a bit of admin stuff on the school computer, as he's the advisor for this club and all of the students had gone home. It was only a few minor things that he'd rather not left undone. Isao also liked the quiet moment from all the chaos that was the education work.

As Isao was doing work, he didn't pay much attention to the surroundings. Students were walking through the corridor. A few teachers also went by, most of them also club advisors in this old building.

Iori Yamada had been observing Isao typing away at the computer for a few minutes now. She pondered for the exact moment she should barge in, and decided to do so immediately after seeing how focused Isao was.

"Oi, my favorite junior! It's time to stop working!"

Isao was so startled when Iori was suddenly shouting in the room. He didn't realize until the door was open that she was there, and she was standing there cross arm like she's going to tear him apart or something.

"What is it? Yamada-san?" Isao asked with caution, and Iori just smirked.

"Is Rumi-chan with you tonight?"

"Uhh..." Isao was hesitant because he didn't know what Iori wanted by asking if his girlfriend was home tonight. "...she's in Tokyo until Golden Week."

"Perfect then. You're coming with me."

"Ehhh?!"

"Right now! Work is over! Turn off the computer!"

Isao, being around 3 years junior from Iori, and having only recently started working at this school for a few months, could not disobey the order from the more senior worker. He had no choice but to save the work, turn off the computer, and follow Iori who led him out the room.

"Where are we going, Yamada-san?" Isao asked while they both walked down the building.

"You, my friend, are going to Showa tonight." Iori replied.

"Showa?..." Isao tried to recall. "...The karaoke bar?"

"Yes, Misaki-san, Yumi-san, and many others are already there."

"Ehhh? How will I get home?"

"My car." Iori replied, with a thumb pointing to her face.

This Showa karaoke bar place was only a few kilometers from the school, and Isao living in an apartment in between meant he had no excuses. If he was being honest, he didn't really want to go to such gatherings. The pressure was too much for him to decline.

"What's the occasion anyway? " Isao asked while trying to catch up to Iori who was walking very quickly.

"Well..." Iori hesitated a bit before replying. "...karaoke?"

What in the hell is karaoke an occasion? Isao thought.

Both were walking out the courtyard towards the car park in front of the school. There were only a few cars left as most of the teachers had gone home as well. One very distinctive car was still parked there. A small, red hatchback that looks like a spaceship but apparently was made by Honda.

"Is this your car, Yamada-san?" Isao asked as Iori unlocked the door with the remote control.

Iori was confused as to why Isao would need to ask that. She's literally unlocking its door.

"Yes, Tanigawa-san, it is my car." Iori replied flatly.

In truth, Isao had seen it often, and always wondered who owns such a distinctive car in this school. Most staff here drive, of course, but they mostly drive boring small cars. Not something fairly rare and unusual. It turns out that the most distinctive person would drive a distinctive car.

At this point though, Iori was wondering something. During the lunch break she went to her car to pick some stuff up, and noticed a yellow Suzuki Swift Sport that's clearly been driven very hard parked right beside her. But it was already gone at this point.

Oh well, it's clearly someone in the know, considering they parked right next to her with intent, but the chance of meeting had eluded them.

Iori and Isao were now sitting in the Civic FN2. Isao was looking around and noticed that inside the driver's seat was different from the passenger seat. Iori seems to be checking her phone for something, maybe messaging someone? She sat with the car idling for a bit.

When Iori started the engine of this Civic, Isao was a bit scared. It's quite a noisy car which made him wonder if it actually had an inspection sticker, which it did, somehow.

"Alright."

After a few minutes, Iori was done with her phone so she put it down in the center console, and set off.

As soon as Iori pressed the clutch pedal down to put it in gear, there's this hard metallic rattly sound from the front which went away as she released it to set off, and immediately as she was turning out of the parking space, the car was juddering pretty hard, with a slight rhythmic grinding noise at the same time. All of this worried Isao a lot more than just the loud exhaust.

"Is the car fine? Yamada-san?" Isao wondered out loud, he's scared out of his mind.

"Hmm? It's normal?"

Isao could only keep it to himself that he's wondering what in the world was normal about this car?

The drive on Route 125 right outside the school was also not normal. The road around Tsuchiura had never been in the greatest condition, and the suspension on this Honda Civic was rock hard. Isao could feel every bump and crevice on the road as it's going along, it jolted him around so much he couldn't even focus his vision out the window properly.

And oh my god, Iori was going above 50 km/h as indicated on the road sign. It actually terrified Isao a little bit, not for their safety, but for her license.

Then, at Tsuchiura Police Station intersection, the traffic was clear and the light was green as Iori approached. She needed to turn left. Isao was holding onto the grab handle in preparation, and Iori did not disappoint. She threw that Civic into the left corner with minimal deceleration, then continued to accelerate ahead on the mostly empty side roads of Tsuchiura.

Zigzagging the narrow side streets, Iori drove the Civic to this karaoke bar pretty quickly. She knew there was a communal parking lot nearby, so she quickly went there to see that it's pretty empty on Tuesday evening.

Isao wanted to lie on the floor after riding in a car with Iori driving for 2 kilometers.

After leaving the car, they both walked only a few meters to Showa, a karaoke bar themed by its name. There was no other way to describe the outside of this place other than a shithole. Dingy and rundown. A really seedy looking place that Isao does not really want to go in if he was alone. Then again, did Iori being here with him really help the case?

The inside was also as expected, if not for the new technologies being used. It'd be like stepping back in time 40 years. Dimly lit room with red and black color scheme. Everything was dingy and seedy, and admittedly very cool.

Being a weekday evening in the middle of the month, there's only a few patrons here today. Which means the master of the house and the mama were pretty much catering to one table. That was the group of teachers from Tsuchiura First High School. The intimate atmosphere makes it almost feel like a members only club.

"Oi! Yamada! Didn't know you're bringing Tanigawa-san here as well!" Misaki shouted to fight with the loud karaoke noises in this place.

Iori brought in Isao, who seemed the most out of place here today, to the table.

"Hello, mama-san." Iori greets the bar mama, a relatively older woman who served the patrons.

"What would you like today, Yamada-san?" The bar mama asked.

"Sapporo, A LOT of Sapporo, same as always, mama-san!"

"And what about the young man?"

Isao was completely befuddled as to what he should say or do next. As he's always been a normie who never went to places like this. In fact, the last time he touched alcohol he's very quickly knocked out.

"Ah... eh..." Isao was clearly out of his depth. Most of his colleagues are waiting in anticipation except the very senior teacher who's singing DESIRE -Jonetsu- at the top of his lungs with the master.

"Water. Get him water." Iori quickly orders for Isao once she realizes that he will either umm and ahh the whole night, or order something he cannot drink.

"Is it alright, Yamada-san?" Isao was shouting too to fight with the loud noise.

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"What?" Iori asked back.

"Would you be able to drive back afterward?"

"I'm not that irresponsible."

At this point, everyone on the table went quiet and turned to look at Iori, who's already down half a pint of beer in her hand.

"You drove here?" Misaki asked with a shocked face.

"Yeah?..." Iori replied, kinda confused before realizing their concern. "...Oh! Right! Masayoshi took the train today and he's coming back from work very late."

"How long has Masayoshi been driving?" Misaki asked again.

"Uhh..." Iori was thinking. "... 3 weeks?"

The worries of everybody did not subside, which made Isao also worried as he was already imagining he'll have to walk home tonight.

"Did he learn a stick shift?" Another, older male teacher was asking Iori with the same worried face as everyone there.

"Yeah, of course he did." Iori was now a little annoyed by everyone's reaction.

After sitting contemplating for a few seconds, everybody decided that it was indeed okay, and they diverted attention elsewhere.

The food here was good, really good. Even Isao was enjoying the food that others have ordered without the need of alcohol. After a few minutes he also seemed more comfortable and enjoying the atmosphere a little bit. That did make Iori a bit more relieved.

Well, that, and the second pint of Sapporo beer she's chugging. That made Isao wonder what this woman was made of?!

"Heyyyy. Didn't that Norio guy today really sucked?" One of the teachers suddenly brought up the subject of the ◯ University promoter.

"He did, man! I thought the students would fall asleep!" Another male teacher added.

To Isao it only confirmed what he was thinking while Norio was presenting to his class.

To Iori, she doesn't care. She's ordering a third pint of beer.

"Oi! Yamada! Come and sing!" Misaki-san was shouting from the front of the karaoke screen.

"Ehhhh, what did you say?"

At this point, Iori was clearly so drunk that she's not responding to the call, but the vague image of Misaki waving at her to come to the karaoke machine.

Isao could only watch in both awe and worry. He never expected to see his older colleagues enjoying themselves. It was only natural of course, but none of them gave any advanced notice that they're coming here today.

"Any songs you know? It doesn't have to be old." Misaki motioned her hand to the songs selector.

"Uhhhhh..." Iori could barely focus her vision so it was a bit difficult when Misaki was flipping the pages quickly. "...that one."

Iori pointed to a Saki Kubota song called 'Ihojin'. Misaki promptly punched the numbers into the machine, which started playing the distinctive melody.

Most people there knew and thought that Iori is actually a pretty decent singer. If she wasn't a lady drunk. To be honest, everything was already a blur when Iori stood up from the table, let alone the first verse started.

Everything went on until around 11.30PM, most of the people still at the table were tired as hell, when a very respectable, but feeble looking man came into Showa.

The man noticed Iori just collapsed face down onto one of the seats, which made him sighed quietly.

"Ah! Masayoshi-san!" Misaki, who's not completely drunk yet, greeted the man who's now sitting next to his wife who's clearly not going to sober up any time soon.

"How long has she been out?" Masayoshi asked as he's shaking Iori gently to see how conscious she was.

"Maybe an hour?" Misaki replied, actually not quite sure.

"Where did she leave the key?"

Misaki pointed to the bar. Isao, who's now sitting there, was talking to the master about the place.

"I see. Thanks, Misaki-san."

Masayoshi stood up and walked to the bar, the master already noticed him walking in so he waved again as a greeting. This made Isao turn around to see.

"I'm here to take Iori home. Can I have her car key please?"

Masayoshi said with a certain calmness and with authority, even when this karaoke bar was still playing music even if it's slightly quieter now.

"Right..." The master opened the till, picked the key with a clear red Honda badge up, and gave it to him. "...Here you go."

"Thank you."

"So you're Masayoshi-san?" Isao asked.

"That's right." Masayoshi replied.

"Yamada-san talked a lot about you."

"I hope it's not only embarrassing stuff."

Isao couldn't help but chuckle at that. Especially when it's being said in Masayoshi's complete serious face.

"Are you Tanigawa? I don't know your name." Masayoshi suddenly asked, which surprised Isao.

"Ah, yes. Yamada-san. I'm Isao Tanigawa."

"Iori told me to also bring you home."

At this moment, Isao was in two minds about that. He could conceivably walk to his apartment, even if it takes half an hour or so, it's not too far away. Especially with the condition of Iori.

"It's alright. I can walk home no problem. I don't live far away from here" Isao said with a smile.

Masayoshi lurked back to Iori.

"She said I have to bring you home safely, no ifs or buts." said Masayoshi. Pointing to her with his thumb.

"Really?..." Isao was really surprised. "...But it's really alright."

"She's going to chide me, and I don't want to lie."

From Isao's perspective, he couldn't imagine how the clearly wild Iori could ever marry such a man who exudes peace and calm like Masayoshi. They seemed to be on the completely opposite end of the spectrum.

"I live at Leo Palace Park Hill." Isao said to Masayoshi.

"I wouldn't know where that is, you have to give me directions."

"Ah, right."

"Alright, shall we go?"

Masayoshi then walked to greet every one of his wife's colleagues who's still around and conscious. Then said goodbyes before trying to shook Iori up again. She seemed to be coming back enough for him to not need to pick her up like a bride. He did that once on their wedding day for a photo and it nearly killed him.

Masayoshi then motioned for Isao to wait in front of the shop. Before walking towards the parking lot that the red Civic Euro was in. He started it up and despite the outward appearance of calmness, deep inside he's extremely nervous.

This was the first time Masayoshi ever got to drive his wife's Civic, and just pressing the clutch to start it up was hard work. Why was the clutch pedal so damn stiff?

After starting it up, Masayoshi tried to set off. He revved it a little bit like he was taught in driving school. Just trying not to slip his feet off the clutch pedal was difficult enough with how stiff it was. The Civic started to move, but before it even rolled an inch, the engine stalled.

Isao could barely see what's happening, but could hear very clearly the noise of a man who tried to drive his wife's car. A very noisy, shaky, stiff, almost broken sounding, red little hatchback.

It took a few minutes before Masayoshi could even get out of the parking lot, with constant stalling, jerky movements, and a lot of grinding noise when turning the wheel. The steering wheel even kicked back a bit when slowly creeping, which made Masayoshi wonder how the hell could his wife drive such a thing.

Masayoshi was getting the hang of it though, as Isao could see. As the Civic was now parked right outside Showa, Masayoshi now went back inside the bar to pick up Iori.

"Mmmmmmmmmzzzzzzzzzz."

Iori was murmuring as she moved in Masayoshi's arm. She's walking herself, but with support from her husband. Both Masayoshi and Isao thought she's humming a song, but they had no idea what song it was.

"Is she going to... you know." Isao asked a scary thought, which made even Masayoshi shudder.

"She never did so I don't think so."

The Civic's cabin was small, and it's a 3-door car which meant the seat had to be moved forward for Iori to get in the back. Isao could only stand to observe Masayoshi putting his wife through to the back. He struggled a little bit but managed to do so with a bit of time.

Masayoshi then stepped inside the car again, along with Isao who moved the seat back and got in.

It was then the time for setting off again, which Masayoshi wasn't looking forward to at all. He released the clutch pedal slowly, but couldn't really withstand the immense pushback from it. Thus he released it too quickly and the car stalled again.

It was at this point one of the patrons who came outside to smoke said with pity.

"Boy, you really don't know how to drive, huh?"

That stranger's word was piercing through Masayoshi, despite him showing no expression, in his mind all he could think of was how much a piece of shit this car was. No matter if Iori had been driving it since before they met nearly 6 years ago. It's still an absolutely useless piece of shit.

Isao also wanted to give Masayoshi some encouragement, but felt that anything would probably irritate him more. So he just sat there quietly, wondering how this night came to be.

Masayoshi just revved up the engine high to fight the clutch bite, and it seemed to work. The car managed to set off without stalling now, instead shooting off in a massive jerky launch and shot off down the street like a hooligan was driving.

"That's one noisy car." The stranger mused as the Civic drove away.

Masayoshi then struggled every time he had to stop and set off again. Basically every traffic light, every intersection. He'd have to try launching this car without screeching the tires, or stalling the engine. And in the tight corners this car steering fought back so much that his hands hurt. To Masayoshi, it took a lot of concentration just to not drive into something, let alone doing so in this garbage car.

Even so, he managed to get to Isao's home without much trouble.

"Thank you, Yamada-san." Isao said to Masayoshi.

"Sorry for everything, Tanigawa-san." Masayoshi replied.

Isao then waved to Masayoshi as he drove away from there. He could only wish the loud noises from it didn't wake his neighbors up too much, or he could sneak back inside without them realizing it's him.

Masayoshi, however, still had to drive back to their home in Ishioka, which was about half an hour away from Tsuchiura. And every minute of it all he could think of was how difficult and wretched this car was to live with.

It did make Masayoshi even question if his wife was even sane. Compared to his car which he bought recently after passing the test, this Civic was a hellish experience for an experienced driver, let alone a new one. He knew it was noisy, he knew it was bouncy, he knew it judders a lot and he knew what his wife did with it often on the Tsukuba mountains.

Masayoshi could never stop Iori from going up there. No matter how much he pleaded or bargained.

It was at this moment, when the Civic was sitting at a traffic light, that a notification was sent to Iori's phone screen, although she wasn't in the state to look at it.

'1 person beat your record. You are now 3rd on the leaderboard.'

One of the features of the Geo Timer application was that you can set the notification for everyday reporting of how many people had beaten your leaderboard time along with the current position.

Iori was pretty miffed when she noticed the notification the morning after her night drinking at Showa karaoke bar. She stayed 2nd for a really long time, but already noticed that one person 'Mister Banana' had been gaining fast, and now beat her record of 2:22.8 by only a few hundreds of a second.

It's still nearly 6 seconds off the top guy "Urasawa", who seemed unbeatable to anyone using the application. But from 2nd to 7th the leaderboard was actually extremely highly contested. With only less than 4 seconds between all of them. Before jumping to 2:30s for 8th.

Iori and Masayoshi lived in a 40 tsubo detached house in Ishioka, half an hour north of Tsuchiura and 45 minutes south west of Mito.

It's actually another perk of living in a relatively more rural area of Ibaraki. Compared to a good area in Tokyo where paying 4 times the price might net you a house half as big. Although work opportunities are of course lessened, Iori and Masayoshi were lucky that they could make a living out here.

For Iori, especially, as the car port outside is big enough for owning 2 cars. One each for both of them.

It's Wednesday morning. Iori already woke up at 6, like she usually does after nights drinking. Of course she's having a massive headache, but she's awake even earlier than usual.

"You look miserable. Is something wrong?" Masayoshi asked Iori as he's coming down from the second floor of their house.

"It's nothing."

Masayoshi's thinking, of course it was nothing. It was always nothing whenever Iori's face was frowning.

Last night, Masayoshi just put Iori down on the sofa in their living room, before going to bed alone. He's definitely not carrying her upstairs no matter how skinny she was. He's even skinnier than her, really.

"Oh did you get Tanigawa home last night?" Iori asked.

"I did..." Masayoshi nodded as he replied. "...Also, I'm never driving your car ever again."

"Ehhh?!..." Iori was genuinely surprised to hear that. "...Why? What's wrong with it?"

Again, Masayoshi was stopping himself with all his might at this moment that he went quiet for a moment. What's NOT wrong with it would be the better question.

"If you're going to get drunk and have me pick you up, just take the N-One." Masayoshi was not answering, just going with a suggestion that sounds a bit like an order.

"But you don't want me to drive your N-One." Iori replied, throwing back Masayoshi's own words at him.

"Yes, but," Masayoshi was now fumbling. "...Just take it."

In Iori's mind, Masayoshi was flip flopping, considering what he said when he bought it after he passed the driving exam that she was not to drive his Honda N-One under absolutely no circumstances no matter how severe.

And before last night as he Masayoshi was working in Utsunomiya for a while, he told her that he wasn't comfortable with driving 70 something kilometers on the Kita-Kanto expressway just yet, so she just told him to get off the train and pick her up and her car at Showa, it's a compromise that seemed to suit them both, right?

Iori had never even been sure as to why Masayoshi was so adamant that she would not be driving his N-One. It's a car. She'd be able to drive it just fine. It's even an automatic so it's very easy to drive. That being said, if Masayoshi allowed it, Iori would be happy to drive it. A cute little cream colored N-One with black roof. It even had chrome rings around the wheels which looked ace.

Masayoshi now disappeared into the kitchen to have his morning coffee. Iori tried her best to stand up with her massive headache and followed him there.

"Speaking of, what are you doing today? Are you going to Tochigi again?" Iori asked.

"I might be," Masayoshi sighed. "...yesterday didn't go too well."

"What happened?"

Masayoshi paused for a few seconds, he's considering how detailed he should tell Iori about his work.

"It's an inheritance dispute. An old patriarch of a big trading company died. I have told you about this right?" Masayoshi started explaining.

"Uh huh." Iori nodded in reply.

"The first child of the guy is content, so is the second child, but his third child, a daughter who has been taking care of the Mito branch, didn't receive the company ownership stake."

"Sounds pretty clear cut for me, although it sucks for her."

"That's the issue, it's not actually clear cut as it happens the will itself was written by someone who's... shall we say not very competent. 20 years ago."

"Ehh?"

"The old man found he had terminal illness then, but surprisingly lived another 20 years which meant the business expanded massively..." Masayoshi paused. "...Also one of the next of kin is still in hospital, in Tsukuba, incidentally, despite being the son of the guy who runs the Nasu branch."

Iori was getting more inattentive the longer Masayoshi described the situation with lawyerspeak. She's still slightly hungover.

"You aren't listening anymore, are you?" Masayoshi cottoned on only a few minutes into the lecture.

"Ah," Iori didn't realize her eyes were already glazed over by this point. "...sorry. I'll be taking a shower now. I didn't last night, right?"

"You did not."

"Right."