Plumes of white fly on the wind...and again, the clash of seasons turns the sky above into a battlefield of gold and sapphire. Leaves of all warm colors laze along the Toyohira, flowing to the south as it always does, caring nothing for the world beyond its stony banks. Yet another fall season will come and go here in Japan’s rugged north...and soon enough, winter will come to claim its dues.

You would be forgiven for taking a brief glance at the box of brick and mortar, the sore American thumb sticking out from the river, and dismissing it as yet another casualty along the endless march of time. But you would be remiss indeed—for once consigned to obsolescence, the Aikawa Auto Company now stands reborn. Those bricks still look the same, the lobby just as it always was, but the heart of the company beats stronger than ever before, echoing throughout the automotive world.

The shop is closed for the day—though not for want of work to do. They’re knocking on the door of their inaugural production run, almost ready to take orders...but there’s one more thing they need to do first. They need to cast their net far and wide, let the market know that Aikawa Auto means business. That day is today—the next step in Reina’s far-reaching scheme to announce herself and her company for all the world to hear.

And it starts with the familiar opening theme to a beloved television programme...

“Tonight!”

Reina chuckles. She chose not to watch the episode until it aired to the public; this’ll be her first time watching herself from the camera lens. The surplus CRT they hauled out from storage gives them an aged picture, but it works well enough for what they need. All these memories from that trip will remain in her heart forever—and reliving them from the comfort of the shop lobby is like a victory lap for all the time and effort it took to get here.

“Man, what a difference a year or two makes, huh?”

That fateful day at Tokachi set so many gears in motion. Airing the race live immediately paid dividends, as the video spread like wildfire among curious petrolheads. Suddenly everybody wanted to know who was behind this monster of a muscle car that seemingly washed up on the other side of the Pacific—including a certain motoring programme halfway across the world.

With the right eyes now on her, she leveraged her newfound notoriety to make an offer the programme couldn’t refuse... It was all but guaranteed to be blockbuster television. The more they looked into her and her company, the more it all started to seem like some elaborate ruse—as if Reina couldn’t possibly be real. And yet here she was...and their overwhelming curiosity compelled them to give her a chance. The buzz surrounding tonight’s episode validates her after the fact: she’s played the hype game to perfection.

It’s set to be another laugher of an episode, the hosts’ brand of jocular journalism endearing them to a worldwide audience. They’ll cover a range of topics, from car reviews to motoring news to gimmicky challenges using wheels they picked up from dodgy newspaper listings. To some extent, though, it’s all just window dressing for the main event on the docket—and the programme seems to know this, because they’ve given that segment top billing and kicked off the entire episode with it.

“Oh, I think that’s us!”

The Star Rider is not present; instead, the presenter seems to be making a point by bringing a C7 Stingray and a Toyota 86 into the studio with him. The contrast borders on absurd—but Reina grins and nods. She likes the setup the presenter’s got going here.

“Now! We recently had this new Corvette on the show. A fast and flashy car, we’ll concede, but still too...American. If you’re gonna spend this much on a fast car, why not buy something fast and refined, like a Porsche or a Ferrari? This car’s trying to put on a big suit and prance around with proper sports cars, but you can’t mask the cheap vulgarity of it all.”

“Japanese sports cars, though... They know they won’t dazzle you with their power or their styling, so they don’t try. And in the case of this GT86 here, I like that quite a lot. It’s not fast, it’s not flashy, but it doesn’t need to be—it’s cheap, fun and reliable in that way Japanese cars tend to be.”

“So, if you have form on one side of the Pacific, function on the other...” With that, the host turns to the camera.

“...What unholy spawn from automotive Hell would come about if you married the two?”

The pre-recorded segment begins; in the programme’s usual style, they open with sweeping, almost disorienting camera shots, giving brief glimpses at the star of the show before finally unleashing it to the eye. The host’s voiceover layers on top of the footage.

“This is what you’d get: the Aikawa Star Rider.”

“Built by a company I’ve never heard of in a town known more for drinking than driving, this car, at first glance, appears to be a case of mistaken identity.” The audience watching along in the studio is conflicted. Some appreciate the eye-catching design while others consider it outdated and overdone. It certainly isn’t Japanese, as the host alludes to.

“In fact, the only real hint of Japanese you’ll find in this car, is on the inside. The interior is noticeably...Spartan.”

The camera cuts to him sitting inside the car—a better fit than he was expecting, given his impressive height.

“There’s no big infotainment screen, no sat nav, no complicated climate control... This tiny little screen is all you get for the temperature, the time, the radio. That’s it.” It’s not even a screen in the typical sense, really—just a collection of seven-segments hooked up to a rudimentary computer and some basic knobs for the controls.

The host chuckles to himself. “They’ve gone and lifted this out of a ten year-old Corolla!”

The camera quickly leaves him behind, though, panning around the outside of the car.

“That forms a big part of Aikawa’s intent here—that less is more. They’ve been able to get the price as low as it is by skimping out on the extra gubbins and gimmicks you’d expect from a Japanese car.”

He rejoins the camera at the front of the car, ready to pop the...bonnet.

“That extends to under the bonnet as well, where you’ll find suspiciously simple engineering—but again, this is an American car...”

Like opening a treasure chest, he unveils the engine bay...and staring back at him is the one and only Outrunner. Reina’s pride and joy. All ten litres, well and accounted for, with thousands of horses slumbering inside.

“This is a ten-litre, one thousand-horsepower V8 engine of Aikawa’s own design. They claim it’s the largest engine ever put into a production car...but it’s not some space-age Japanese motor at all. It’s a bog-standard, old-timey pushrod, just bored out to an asinine degree.”

“And it makes me ask...why?”

That serves as the basis for the next volley of camera shots, focusing on the mechanical minutia that make up the Star Rider.

“It’s all a strange mishmash of design and engineering from both sides of the Pacific—a shotgun marriage that’s birthed a nostalgic punk rocker with a preposterous hairdo.”

The host stares back at the car, a noticeable perplexity on his face. This is the first car in a while that has truly dogged his expectations—more than your boilerplate supercar, more than experimental offerings from bigger companies. The Star Rider is a total enigma.

“So, it’s got a too-big engine, a too-old interior and a too-schizophrenic body. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to make this—much less who on Earth would want to buy it.”

But, with all his skepticism exhausted, the host starts to turn.

“...Until I got in and started the engine.”

*RRRrrrRRRRRRMMMMMM!*

The sound of the 611 echoes throughout the entire studio, shaking the audience to their core as if a tiger were staring them dead in the face. The mics aren’t on to pick it up, but an audible gasp makes its way through the crowd as the video rolls on—to say nothing of the host, as the camera lingers on a shot of him laughing in the driver’s seat.

“In stripping the car down to its bare essentials, what you’re left with is a car that is terrifyingly quick.” The Star Rider takes to the test track, and immediately it asserts its authority on the warm summer asphalt—all while the cameras make sure to pick up every last bar of the engine’s visceral howl. At this point, the host has to switch back to voiceover, as he won’t be able to shout loud enough over the engine to reach the microphones.

“Naught to 60 in under three seconds. And flat out?”

*RRRRMMMMMM!*

“...Well, they said they don’t know. They weren’t able to find a straight bit of track long enough to actually max it out. But they do know that it’s somewhere in the 200s.”

To be sure, the Star Rider is very fast in a straight line—more so than a car at its price point has any right to be. But the Brits aren’t as interested in quarter-mile drags as their frenemies across the Atlantic, and that prompts them to put the car through its paces on their long and twisty bits.

“And you would expect all this power would make the car completely uncontrollable—like an old Viper, or...Kerry Katona, perhaps. But no!”

The host is a pretty decent driver in his own right. He lights up the tires and launches the car into the turns, drifting as much as the traction control will let him. The Star Rider undergoes a live-action torture test on his command, throwing the car every which way and trying everything he can to break its composure. Yet for all his driving, all his drifting, all his unapologetic thrashing, the car holds up remarkably well—engine, gearbox, suspension, everything.

“Don’t get me wrong, though, it is still a very unruly machine!” The host is visibly on edge with every drift, every rampant battle with the wheel, struggling to keep the beast under control. He teaches by example: if you want to control this thing, you need to have a damn good grip behind the wheel.

“The more I played around with it, the more its luddite conventions started to make sense. There’s nothing to get in the way between you and the engine, no fancy window dressing to make the car tamer, like a Porsche or even a GT-R.”

The camera cuts back to him, looking positively thrashed behind the wheel.

“The only real thing you get there is traction control—which, and I cannot stress this enough, you should not turn off.”

The instant he does, the Star Rider rips the control straight out of his undeserving arms, and his high-speed drift goes up in smoke. He comes to a rest as the music stops, facing backward on the track...but when the camera cuts back to him, he’s just laughing with a finger on his temple.

“Why is this so fun?” He’s starting to figure it out.

“It’s an old-school car, to be sure,” his narration resumes, “but it’s not just some nostalgic cash grab for despondent pensioners. It’s old-school with a purpose.”

“The interior, for instance, is cheap, but comfortable—built well like you’d expect a Japanese car to be. The body as well—it doesn’t bend when you give it a thump, like the plastic arse of a Corvette.”

“Even the engine here,” he points out, with the bonnet up after a hard drive. “If you take a look at this... I mean, I could service it!”

“I could do the oil, I could do the filters, I could to the plugs. Aikawa even gives you an exhaustively-detailed manual for fixing things yourself!” For emphasis, he waves the big book in his hand. Reina worked very, very hard on that—even commissioned a local artist for meticulous (and humorous) illustrations to help garage mechanics along.

“No random electrical faults, no vomiting coolant everywhere, no going to a dealership and paying 500 quid for an oil change. It’s so dead simple that there’s nothing to break!”

“And that’s where the Japanese DNA in the car really starts to shine.” The camera slows down, gentler as it follows the Star Rider on a more casual cruise up the track. “If this car is even half as reliable on the road as it’s proven to be on the track, then it can save you thousands in back-breaking repairs and maintenance. The more you drive it, the more Japanese it gets...”

“But that sound?” He readies his foot on the gas. “Unapologetically American.”

*RRRRMMMMMMMMM!*

“God almighty, that sound is good.” He just can’t stop laughing.

Safe to say, the team back home is more than happy with how they’ve presented the car. The camerawork, the pacing, the audio, it’s all top notch. And as it so happens, the Aikawa crew isn’t the only watch party; all the way down in Kanazawa, the team that worked so hard to build that chassis is rightfully celebrating their reward.

“I still can’t believe we’re really watching this... We made it, Pop!”

“Damn straight, we did! And see, he’s warmin’ up to the design! If we can convert a crotchety old Brit like him, that’s a win in my book!”

It’s hard for Akane to overstate how much this all means to her. With the Star Rider’s success, she’s validated her own emotions, quelled the conflict inside her head. In the end, she doesn’t need to jump through hoops to justify the way she is—she doesn’t owe anything to that status quo in looks, or hobbies, or even career choice. This is what’s best for her, and no outside pressure can change her.

It took a certain bespectacled trailblazer to help her realize that.

“I really owe you a lot for this, Reina... Thank you.”

***

After another round of glamour shots and perhaps another exhaust recording or two, the car has finally said its piece. Left with little else to show, the programme takes the energy down a notch, and the host takes the chance to reflect a little on his own expectations.

“To be frank, when Aikawa sent us this car, I was expecting the worst. America’s idea of blending Japanese culture with their own is like...sitting a bunch of diabetics around a grimy sushi bar in the middle of New Jersey.”

“But this? This is Kill Bill. Violent, confident, unhinged...and I have never been so excited by something that so desperately wants to kill me.”

One final cut back to him, resting his head on the extra-tall seat.

“Now, it still doesn’t have the refinement that you would get in other cars at this price point. It’s not a particularly versatile car...but it’s not trying to be. With other cars, you get a suite of features that’ll heat your seats and make calls for you and show you all the nearest restaurants and...maybe give you a little peck on the cheek as you get out.”

“This is just four wheels and an engine. It is, in effect, a very expensive toy...but you know something? I don’t really care. That’s all this car wants to be—and that’s refreshing.”

For many, the dream of owning a sports car—and the honeymoon phase that comes with buying it—mask the reality of what it’s like to deal with one. The constant maintenance; the fiddly, expensive parts; the sheer headache of wrestling with the sunk-cost fallacy. The dream becomes a nightmare, and regret poisons the mind so much that one can hardly bear to even sit in it anymore. But as the weeks of testing refused to draw even a single fault or failure out of the Star Rider, the car’s back-to-basics philosophy steadily won this host over.

“...It’s the most fun I’ve had in a while.”

With a contented smile, the host drives away from the camera and into the distance, bringing the chaotic segment to an end on an introspective note. The audience really wasn’t sure what to expect upon viewing it either...but they certainly know how to feel afterward. They welcome the host back to the studio with a chorus of applause, and this time, the Star Rider joins him on the stage in place of its American and Japanese contemporaries. They all knew that segment was gonna be a hit when it aired.

“Now, I had a lot to say about the Star Rider, but! It is still quite the difficult car, especially when it comes to the track. Aikawa told us they launched it to compete with newer muscle cars on the market—and they were confident it could beat the new Stingray round our track. We’ve got it on the board here, 1:24.6.” It’s one of the quickest muscle cars on their power lap leaderboard—and for a similar price. If it wants any legs outside of Japan, it’ll have to put up a good show against its self-fashioned rival.

“We’ll be the judge of that, though.”

The anticipation builds. They all know what’s coming.

“For that, we sent the Star Rider off to our test driver. Let’s see how the Stag got on with it!”

The studio’s TV centerpiece comes alive, and immediately the audience is taken back to the track—this time on a dry morning with a masked driver behind the wheel of the car. The 611 is already singing as he loads up first gear, ready to fly off the line at a moment’s notice. He’s been itching to give this car a try for himself—for several reasons.

*RRMMMM...!*

“And off he goes! Lots of wheel spin there, the tires really struggling to keep up with all the torque this thing makes! But it’s still flying off the line!”

The camera jolts around briefly, having its own issues keeping up with the car. Its deceptively nimble frame combine with the behemoth engine to propel it into the first turn at an astronomical pace.

“First corner now, and you can see how much the Stag’s having to fight the car already, he’s got his hands very full in there, but he keeps it together—using up all the track there, and my God, that thing sounds maniacal!”

As is tradition with these power laps, they show a view of the Stag from his office—along with whatever he happens to be listening to on the radio. This time, fittingly, it’s Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird, and the solo’s just started. The guitars egg him on as he sails into the next set of turns.

“Detroit now, this’ll really bite him if he can’t keep it under control, but he seems to have it sorted—ooh, but he’s left the tail out as he powers off the corner!”

The Stag can’t believe how much power the car has to give, punching well above its weight compared to the cars it’s marketed against. He felt under control in the Stingray, but this has him on the very edge of his seat.

He loves that.

“This is the first time in a while I’ve seen the Stag so out of sorts—but I think he likes it! He’s almost having too much fun in there!”

The Anchorhead is possibly the nastiest corner on the circuit. Designed to catch any over- or understeer and punish hard, the Stag makes sure to nail this corner as best he can.

“Anchorhead! Now, you’d expect some understeer here, that’s a very heavy engine right up at the front, and it does go wide! Can the Stag keep it together, can he hold it on the road? He does! Could’ve been a lot worse, I’ll bet the cameraman wanted to run for his life!”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Cutting back to the Stag behind the wheel... The solo is still going.

“Now for the straight, and this is where the Star Rider really shines, flexing that army of horses, full tilt across the speed trap...!”

*RRRRRRRRR-MMMMMMMM...!*

That’s the best flyby shot they’ve had in a while.

“Tyrrell now, heavy braking, trying to slow that giant cruise missile down, the car’s wiggling a bit! Really wanting to break loose on him, but the Stag says no!”

Just two corners left to go, and though they don’t have a live timer, the audience is getting the idea that this is a whopper of a lap. The Stag is pushing the Star Rider as hard as he can, eking out every last tenth as he throws its squealing tires into the turns.

“It’s looked like a pretty good lap from here, just one corner to go... Another scary line here, and again he drifts the back out coming through! The Star Rider is giving him everything it has, and he’s pushing it right back! There he goes, across the line!”

An enthusiastic round of applause for the Star Rider and the Stag. Keeping that monster under control is no lean feat—especially for a driver unused to having so little help from the car at that speed. But he’s pretty confident in the lap he put down...and he was extra motivated to give the car all he had that day.

“I will say, it certainly looked fast, didn’t it?” The crowd agrees with him.

“I’ve got the time. They said they wanted the Stingray—1:24.6 to beat. The Aikawa Star Rider did it...”

“...in one, twenty-TWO, point two!”

An excited gasp makes its way through the audience, followed by another chorus of applause. They knew the car was fast, but it’s blown the Corvette out of the water!

“That is absurd! Two and a half seconds faster than the Stingray—it’s faster than the GT-R! It’s hanging out up here in the 22s with the GTS, the NSX...and it’s beat them too!”

It’s far and away the fastest muscle car on the leaderboard—even if its classification as such might be slightly debatable. It’s not American, but does it ever have that ostentatious Yankee spirit.

“I’m not sure I’d rather have this car over those, but I can’t deny that is a wicked, wicked time...” The host can only shake his head.

“He did put in a pretty good lap there.”

Not one to miss any racing action, Yuzu is watching the episode as well, from the comfort of her couch in her Obihiro home. Her parents even made popcorn.

“I wonder how fast I’d have done it...” She’s been all over the map herself lately. Her second year in F3 has seen her rise to the top echelon of the grid, breaking through to notch her first win in the series earlier this year. She’s been on a tear ever since, even sweeping the two races at Motegi to put the leagues above on notice. A couple of curious Super GT outfits have been calling her name... It’s looking like she’ll be racing in the big leagues to start next year.

Not bad for a girl from the sticks.

(Time really flies, doesn’t it?)

To think she was pretty close to writing Reina off back in the day...but now look at her. She’s gone and made the future hers. And as Yuzu prepares to realize her own long-awaited dream, she thanks Reina for all the opportunities she gave her over these few eventful years. Now, she has not just a bright young career ahead of her...but a lifelong friend to go with it.

(Heh heh... What more could I want?)

***

The programme would normally be gearing up for a commercial segment right now—or, failing that, some break from the review to focus on something more lighthearted and jovial, bringing the other hosts in and all the chemistry that comes with. But as the viewing audience is about to learn, there’s something different about tonight’s episode... Something off the beaten path. Reina didn’t just pitch a review of the car when she got in contact with the show... She had something else up her sleeve.

“We’re getting to it now...” Reina’s heart starts to thump out of her chest. The review was tense enough, but watching the replay of this is putting her on the edge of her seat—even though she already knows how it goes.

She hopes it’ll leave as much of an impact on the viewers as it did on her.

“Now!” The host welcomes the crowd and the viewers back from commercial break, letting the applause die down before starting his next segment.

“Ordinarily, this is where we’d start some other segment, and where I’d introduce the other two stooges...but as it so happens, Aikawa had a proposition for us.”

The camera takes a turn as he walks back toward the Star Rider, still sitting pretty on the stage with him. “You see, the boss of the company herself was very keen on taking the car round our track—and she said she wanted to have a go...at the Stag’s lap time.”

He and the crowd are rightly amused.

“Naturally, we wanted to learn a little more about her first—not every day a company suit challenges our Stag to a time trial. So here she is now: Miss Reina Aikawa!”

Some of the eagle-eyed spectators in the crowd were curious who that long silhouette was toward the corner of the studio—and when she comes out of the shadow with a confident smile on her face, they can’t help but applaud her. He debut on the international stage has her looking quintessentially her, and she wouldn’t want it any other way.

“And good day to you!” Only the host can hear her above the crowd—though it’s less the background noise and more that he has his undivided attention on her. They shake hands when she reaches center stage, and against the otherwise physically imposing host, she holds her own in a way most can’t. One of the other hosts in particular is probably envious.

“Not every day you meet with someone taller than you, is it?”

Reina chuckles. “Y’know, I’m seeing a lot of things for the first time here.”

“’Cause you said earlier, this is your first time abroad, isn’t it?”

“Yup! I was born and raised in Japan, been there all my life.”

“You haven’t been to America.”

“Nope. That’s on my bucket list, though, for sure.”

“Right, and I mean, that’s a story you hear a lot. People grow up here or in other countries, they move to LA or New York, and they become traitors.” He draws a laugh from the crowd, which helps ease her nerves a bit.

“But that’s not the case with you, and that leads me to ask: why America? Why not cross Japanese cars with...I dunno, German or Italian? Cars that would be so much better if they just had good electronics?”

Now it’s Reina’s turn to laugh. He really is just as advertised, the patriotic jester.

“Well...because that’s just not who we are, y’know? My grandma, she was born and raised in America—Samoa, actually, but it was the American part. She grew up working on cars, she was a mechanic in the Navy, and then after the war, she met her husband in Japan and settled down there.”

“So, we’ve always had that Japanese and American fusion, just sort of the other way around from how you typically think of it.”

“And that’s why you talk like a ‘Murrican?”

“Yes, sir! Heh heh.” She used to get bullied for her accent in her school’s English class. Those kids can take a hike.

“But yeah. That’s how we got our start as a company—we liked working on big, American muscle cars because that was what my grandma liked to do. I grew up working with her on builds for customers, watching her put engines together...and I love doing it! This isn’t just for the sake of a market niche; it’s what I really want to do with my life.”

The host nods. Ever quick on the draw, he’s got more curious questions for her.

“So how much of this car, would you say, is yours? How big a hand did you have in it?”

“Most of it. The engine wasn’t all me—it was mostly my grandma’s design, and I filled in the blanks here and there. But I did build it myself.”

“Similar story for the bodywork, except we outsourced that to some good friends, Tetsukura Chassis, they built the frame for us.”

“But you still got really down in there with the build?”

“I did, yes.”

“And that’s interesting, ‘cause you wouldn’t think most big CEOs would be able to tell you what every single part on a car does. But you seem more like a mechanic who accidentally became a boss.”

Reina stifles a guffaw. His assessment isn’t quite accurate, but she sees his point.

“No, no, I’m not the corporate type...but I think that’s what makes our cars special. They’re designed by mechanics, for mechanics—and you touched on that in the review, we really try to balance reliability with all the crazy sh... The, uh.”

Reina briefly forgets she’s on national television and should probably tone the language down a notch. The host lets slip a good-natured laugh like an old friend.

“I get what you mean, though!”

“Yeah! You know.”

“That was one of the most astonishing things I found when we were testing it—because it wasn’t just that one shoot, we had it here for weeks and weeks, throwing everything we could at it. But it held up about as well as we could’ve asked for!”

“Good, that’s a passing grade for me!”

“All the more considering you built the whole damn thing yourself.”

When he spells it out like that, it really does seem ridiculous...but all she can do is smile. She’s proven herself to be capable and confident—and not just with her words, but with the sheer quality of her craft. There’s something the host can appreciate in how she still carries herself like an ordinary woman, that humility she exudes, while blazing a trail few others could ever hope to follow.

“Now, I would like to move on to the elephant on the room.”

“Oh boy.”

“You said you wanted to take your car round our track?”

“Yes, I did! I’ve been testing the car a lot myself, so I think I know it pretty well by now.”

“And I remember when we were talking earlier that you said your mother was a GT racer?”

“Yup! She was a track specialist at our local circuit, Tokachi Speedway. They used to come up and do a 24-hour race every year, and she won her class three times!”

“You think you’ve inherited any of her chops behind the wheel?”

“Oh, I don’t think I compare to her at all. My mom in her prime was a whole other beast.”

“...Buuut I think I can still give the Stag a run for his money. I’ve gotten pretty good at driving my car.”

The host raises his eyebrows. That confidence excites him.

“You know, he was very competitive when we told him that.”

“Oh, I know. He was really hounding me when he was showing me around the track. He was a great help, though! Showed me all the right lines to take, all that stuff.”

The host vaguely points at her. “You’ve got that look though, you wanted to have another couple laps out there, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Reina concedes. “I feel like I was just starting to get the hang of it out there!”

“Well, whatever time you got is the time you’re stuck with.”

“Now: who would like to see Reina’s lap?”

The host gestures to the crowd, and they enthusiastically cheer back at him. They’re all dying to see Reina walk the walk after talking her talk.

“Roll the tape.”

Like before, the Star Rider stands ready at the starting line, engine already raring to go. Reina’s had some time to get used to the track by this point, with the Stag’s help, but now, she’s on her own out here. She’s gotta make this count.

*RRRMMMMMMMM...!*

“And that’s another very aggressive start! Not every day you have a company boss who can sell their car and drive it too—and whoooa! That’s a bold line round the first corner! She’s not leaving any room for error there!”

Taking the Stag’s advice, Reina drives the Star Rider on the very ragged edge, taking a heroic line through the bend—though she didn’t exactly need him to tell her to be aggressive. That was her game plan from the start.

“Heh heh heh!” The camera catches a capricious laugh from inside the car as Reina, satisfied with her turn, shifts up and lets the engine roar. The crowd chuckles.

“You’re really committing big in these corners, but will that catch you out of line? Detroit really punishes understeer, the car’s getting twitchy under braking trying to slow down in tiiime...but not a problem!”

Compared to the Stag, Reina is somehow pushing even harder behind the wheel. Where the Stag really focused on getting settled down on corner entry to power off late, Reina is all but torturing her tires as she leaves her braking to the last possible second. All her time and testing with the car gives her a better idea of when and where she can brake—while the Stag, for all his experience, didn’t have nearly as much time to get used to the car.

“Now, Anchorhead is the big test, you get this wrong and it compromises your entire follow-through down the straight, are you gonna play it safe?”

“Heh, no.”

The audience laughs as she proves her point, once again pushing the Star Rider to its very limit. It’s finding grip in the most absurd of places—possibly as a consequence of all the practice laps she did earlier, getting the rubber laid down nice and thick. Whatever the case, it’s working: she nails the Anchorhead, getting through the complex about as well as the Stag did—and even flaring the tail out like he did.

“Now, you said you weren’t at all like your mother!”

“I’m not!”

“Then what the bloody hell is this?!”

*RRRRRRRRR-MMMMMM...!*

The host is visibly excited to see how the lap ends, even though he’s seen it plenty of times before. Just watching both her and the Stag wheel this monster around their track has been entertainment enough for a whole lifetime.

“Tyrrell now, big braking zone, scrubbing off all that speed from that massive V8, looks like about the same line as the Stag had through there—ooh, but you’re way earlier on the throttle, and it’s almost caught you out there! She’s kicked up dirt on the exit!”

That’s the one corner Reina wishes she could have back—not that she doubts her lap on the whole. She’s all smiles as she watches her replay, getting to relive her attack from angles she’s never seen before. The anticipation starts to build back up as she gets closer and closer to the finish line, knowing the all-important comparison is looming around the corner. Will it be her, or the helmet?

“Coming up to the last corner now. Flying in there, pushing wide on the exit, but there’s room there, you’re alright!”

“Stag knows the track, but Reina knows the car, who will it be in the end? There she goes, across the line!”

And with that, it’s back to the studio—albeit not without another round of applause. The crowd has been head over heels for Reina this whole segment, her infectious personality winning them over...on top of her maniacal wheelmanship, of course.

Reina’s already on the edge of her seat. She was invested enough watching her replay, but now her heart is pounding. She’s dying to know.

“You said you felt pretty good about that lap, didn’t you?”

“Could’ve been better, but I’ll take it!”

“So...where do you think you’ve come?”

Lots of fast cars on that leaderboard there...all test-driven by the show’s truly. It’s a tall enough order just matching his time, let alone beating it—but without that boast, this wouldn’t be must-watch television, now, would it?

“Well, if I know what’s good for me, I’ll have beaten the Stingray.”

A light-hearted laugh to break the tension.

“1:24.6. That would be quite a ways off from the Stag’s Star Rider time, of course.”

“Oh, absolutely. If I had to guess...” Reina doesn’t want to sound too cocky...though to an extent, that ship’s already sailed.

“...Somewhere in the 1:22s. I think I got him down to the second, at least.”

“Final answer?”

“Hit me.”

The host breaks out his marker pen.

“...Not nervous?”

“Oh, I’ve just got a good poker face. I’m sweating bullets.”

“Well after a boast like yours, I would be too! Got 200-something million people watching to see how you did.” The crowd is almost nervous on her behalf as well. “But frankly, after a lap like that, I don’t think you have anything to be ashamed of.”

“Now... Reina Aikawa.”

She nods.

“You did it, in one...”

“...Good.”

“Twenty...” With painstaking anticipation, he writes down each individual digit on the Star Rider’s strip of paper. He milks every second for all it’s worth.

“...Two.”

Reina’s brows lift. The crowd lets slip an excited murmur. The camera lingers on her for just a moment longer, as she stares the host dead in the face. She’s got that fiery look in her eyes again.

“...Dead.”

“YES!” On instinct, Reina pumps her fist and stands up like a rocket, a jubilant smile on her face. The crowd celebrates with her as she feels the nerves evacuating her body. She claps and lets slip a relieved laugh as the host’s own face brightens up with an incredulous cheer. The sheer catharsis of having all these people cheering for you, all watching you blaze your own trail... It’s just the best feeling in the world.

“1:22 dead! She’s beat the Stag!”

The host does the honor of placing her time on the leaderboard and removing the Stag’s own effort, as Reina has demonstrated how fast the car can really go in the perfect hands. It’s a monumental accomplishment, by any stretch—both in the vacuum of the show and in the wider context of bringing this car here herself, and all the challenges that entailed.

And it was all worth it.

“I must say, that is astonishing.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” Her smile is beautiful. The cheers still haven’t stopped.

“I’ll be honest, we were that close to dismissing this whole thing outright, but we decided it might be more fun to call your bluff.” He shakes his head. “And we made the right choice there, didn’t we?”

“I’m just glad you took the gamble on me. Really happy I got to be here and do all this.”

“So this car’s close to production, from what you were telling us earlier? When d’you think we’ll be seeing it on the road?”

“Well, if I’m smart, I’ll have it set up so you can put a deposit down by the time this airs. We’ve still got some legal stuff to figure out as far as exporting it outside of Japan goes, lots of paperwork, so it might be a bit later until we can get it to the UK? But we’re still targeting next model year, so yeah!”

“Well, do us a favor and hurry it up, would you?”

“Hah!” He doesn’t know the half of it. “Well, I’m pretty good at taking things fast, aren’t I?”

“I’ll say, bloody hell.”

Reina couldn’t have known at the time they shot all this, but the timing of this episode’s eventual broadcast couldn’t have come any better. The biannual Tokyo Motor Show is knocking on her door—and you bet she’s got a plan to make waves down there. If all goes well, she’ll be able to ride the momentum from this good press all the way down south...and from there, to the very stars in the sky.

“Well, best of luck to you, and thank you so much for coming here. Ladies and gentlemen, Reina Aikawa!”

Reina sees off the crowd—and all the viewers watching at home—with a thankful wave and a standing ovation from the audience. They had no idea what to expect when they all filed into the building for this mystery segment...but not a single one of them regrets the experience now. How could they? Reina’s stolen the show, and they all know it.

And all the way back in Sapporo, living through that day again, Reina knows she’s got something truly special on her hands.

“Now! On to the news...”

The host welcomes his two partners in crime back onto the stage, and they continue on with the episode like nothing happened at all...save for the Star Rider, of course. It’s still sitting there after Reina’s departure, standing watch over the set—call it a projection of power to last just a little longer. A memento from Aikawa Auto, for all to see.

The episode will come and go—another of the programme’s finest, filled with gut-busting laughs and timely insight, balancing the scale as they always do...but when all is said and done, there’s just one segment from the show that everyone wants to talk about.

They’ll remember that girl from Sapporo and her ridiculous car. They’ll remember her for a long, long time.

***

Time will pass. The seasons will change. On this relentless march, the open book will pen a new page—and it will be up to you to choose what the future writes for you. You may gaze upon the book, and you may find that some passages, some paragraphs are already written in your name... You may find yourself daunted by this notion of destiny. Indeed, there are some things that life will not allow you to change...but all the same, you may not seek refuge in the past and deny the book its closure. The future must be written.

But for all the things you cannot change, there will always be some things you can. What you write in those blank spaces matters far more than those fated letters; that is what makes you who you are. And it is the story you pen yourself that gives you what you seek.

That is what Reina has come to know.

*RRRrrrRRRRRRMMMMMM!*

She’s come a long way—written a great many words in that big book. There are still so many pages left in her story, so many more days to seize...but with her patience and her determination, she has the strength to wake up every morning and keep on writing. She knows where she’s going...and she knows where she wants to be.

Today sees her on a journey, in that nostalgic old Road Runner. The Star Rider, and its two little sisters, are waiting for her down south. She’s got a lot to do in the days ahead...but she doesn’t mind that. Every day she wakes up living this dream, she remember all the effort she put to get here—and that all the work she faces will be worth it in time.

*CLICK!*

A soundtrack, to accompany her on her trip. Foreigner—one of her grandmother’s favorite bands from back in the day. A gentle flute graces her ears... A tune she’s come to know all too well.

I stole a ride on a passing star...

Not knowing where I was going, how near or how far...

One more time, she leaves the nest. Her world has gotten so much bigger since the gears began to turn... From treading water in the frigid straits of Sapporo to streaking across the skies wherever her heart would take her. That freedom she so yearned for, that power to walk like Clara and Sami did... She feels it now, coursing through her veins.

Through years of light, lands of future and past...

Until the heavenly gates were sighted at last...

Soon, she leaves Sapporo behind, the steely grays and the autumnal golds clashing together on the horizon ahead. She sees the future in her eyes, unbound by those chains of old. The road invites her with open arms.

Star rider!

(Rider! Rider!)

Take me to the stars!

She can’t see them behind this curtain of daytime blue...but she doesn’t need to. She is the one who guides her path—not fate, not time, not even Clara nor Sami. She might not know how her story ends quite yet, but with every chapter she finishes, the new one comes to her straight from the heart.

Northern lights flashed by, and then they were gone...

And as old stars would die, so the new ones were born...

And indeed, there was a time when this car itself was a chain that bound her. A relic of the past, a refuge from the future... A reminder of how beautiful those golden years were. In her youth, Reina saw that gold from a rose-tinted lens—twisting the truth and warping the colors she saw in her eyes. But as she accepted the truth, found meaning in Aikawa Auto’s true colors, she was able to forge ahead with an even clearer picture.

Speed increasing, all control is in the hands of those who know!

Will they help us grow...to one day be star riders!

The chorus comes to salute her again, and as the highway before her stretches on into the sky, she shifts up a gear and claims the future for herself. The Road Runner sings, the wind parting, the sun shimmering on its old coat of paint. It is her comet, her chariot—in the old times a painful ghost, but now charging through time like a phoenix from the ashes.

This is who Reina Aikawa is. Dealt a bad hand, consigned to failure and obscurity, saddled with the burden of her family’s checkered past...but she refused to buckle under the weight of the future. With what power she still wielded, she started writing her story, not knowing how it would end...and bit by bit, word by word, she kept on writing. Kept on driving. Kept on dreaming. She would not let the future change her, turn her into a shadow of who she wanted to be. Now, she lives that starry-eyed dream from her youth...and she will never look back.

She was, is, and will always be, Reina Aikawa.

Speed increasing, all control is in the hands of those who know!

Will they help us grow...

image [https://i.postimg.cc/W1J387Xh/Jetbrick-To-One-Day-Be-Star-Riders-PDF-Size.jpg]