"Alice?"

"Earth to Alice?"

The voices echoes in her mind as she looks towards her father, who is standing right in front of her. She looked around and noticed that they were in the spectator stands of the Akinabalu circuit.

"D-dad?" Alice asked confusedly.

"Sweetie you okay?" Her father asked her.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." She looks at him.

"Good, just stay here and watch the race from here okay? I'll be back after an hour or so alright." He reassures Alice.

"D-dad don't go!" She said in a scared tone.

She reached for his hand and the sky turned into darkness and thunder lit the sky. Her father turned his back and began walking away from her. Her father approaches a dark figure in the distance, waiting for him.

"Kid?"

"Hey, kid?"

"Kid!"

She woke on the sofa seemingly panicking as she looked around her surroundings. She saw Sugimoto in front of her and began looking around and remembered that she had slept on the sofa in the break room when Sugimoto was out.

"You okay kid?" Sugimoto asked her.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Alice told him.

"You seem like you had a pretty bad dream huh? Maybe sleeping after working out isn't the best idea." Sugimoto advised her.

"Y-yeah, I accidentally fell asleep here. I'll go and change real quick." She told him.

"Great, 'cause I want to use the sofa now." He said and chuckled.

"Of course you do, Senpai." Alice said as she teased him.

Alice walked out of the break room and went to the main building where there was a changing room available. She changed into her racing attire and went out. As she walked outside, she met Kara still in her casual outfit waiting outside the changing room.

"Hey Alice! Didn't expect to meet you here." Kara says while smiling.

"Were you going to change into your racing attire Kara?" Alice asked Kara.

"Yeah, why do you ask? Do you perhaps want to join me?" Kara said teasing Alice.

"W-What? No way, I just wanted to know that's all!" Alice said slightly blushing.

"Aww, I guess I'll just change by myself then." Kara told her teasingly.

Alice slightly taken aback by the conversation decides to change the topic.

"So Kara, are you excited for the race?" She excitedly asked Kara.

"Why wouldn't I? I can't wait to beat Asashi!" She said feeling confident.

"I see, you always had a rivalry with him, Kara?" Alice asked.

"Well only back then in the academy, but until then we never really met in an actual pro-level race." Kara told her.

"I see, good luck with that!" Alice told Kara.

"You too, say what's your goal for this race?" Kara asked her.

Alice was surprised by her question. Alice began thinking of a casual answer.

"I-I don't know, probably just going to maintain my position and just hope I don't get passed, I guess?" She said as she tried to make up an answer.

"Is that all Alice? Is that all you really want for this race?" Kara questioned her.

Alice suddenly felt something inside her and remembered what she had worked for all the years of karting and track racing.

"N-no. That's not all. I want to try and win this race. I want to prove to that jerk who I am, I want people to hear my name!" Alice told Kara while grudging her fist.

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"Quite ambitious aren't you, Alice? But I'm relieved to hear that, that's what I actually want to hear from you, Alice." Kara said to Alice.

"You wanted to hear that?" Alice asked confusedly.

"Yeah, now that I know your goals..." Kara muttered slowly.

She suddenly points at Alice, standing tall in front of her.

"I'll make sure you'll never pass me!" Kara said to her with confidence.

Alice looks at her finger, feeling slightly determined knowing that Kara won't let her achieve her dreams that easily.

"I'll try my best to beat you, Kara!" Alice said and smiled at her.

Kara looks at Alice and extends her hands.

"You're my rival from now on, don't let me down, Alice!" Kara told Alice.

"S-same, I won't lose easily!" Alice told her.

They both shook hands and an aura between them grew stronger, both drivers were now determined to up each other in the race and would not back down easily. After that, Kara waves goodbye to her and walks into the changing room. Alice walked back to her team's garage and entered the break room where she saw Sugimoto sleeping on the couch again.

"Fell asleep huh, can't help it I guess." Alice muttered feeling a bit annoyed but let him go.

She began inspecting the crew where she saw Ghazali inspecting her car.

"Hey Gaz, whatchu up too?" Alice said as he looked from behind him.

Ghazali shoots up from Alice suddenly standing right behind him.

"Woah, give me a heads up next time!" Ghazali told her.

"Ah sorry, didn't mean to, so whatchu doing?" Alice asked him curiously.

"Ah I'm just inspecting your car for a bit, I just noticed there's still some stuff that could be modified here such as changing the seats for lighter bucket seats." Ghazali told her.

"Weight reduction huh? But I don't think it's a good idea to reduce it now since it could temper with the M235i's weight distribution," Alice told him.

"Yeah, maybe we can change a few things later, but for now I guess it's still good." Ghazali said and agreed with her.

As they were talking, an announcement was made through the speaker.

"The race will start in 1 more hour, please be ready by then." The announcer said across the pit lane.

"Looks like we should get ready, let's go people!" Ghazali told his pit crew.

Ghazali began rallying his team up and gave them some prep talk. Alice looks towards them and seeing all the pit crew begins hearing all of Ghazali's orders and some of his encouragement towards the team. Alice looks in awe seeing how the team is dedicated and determined to win the race. She began feeling something within her, a feeling of warmth seeing the passion everyone puts into motorsports.

"Everyone here has dedicated their life to this sport, I must prove to them that I belong here!" Alice told herself.

Alice decided to go inside her car and started feeling the steering wheel. As Alice sat in her car, she heard a slight knock from the passenger side window. She turned towards it and saw the manager standing outside.

"Ah manager, what's up?" Alice asked him.

"Just checking up on everyone, may I come in?" The manager asked.

"Sure thing. Let me unlock it real quick." Alice said to him.

Alice unlocked the car and the manager got inside the car and sat beside the passenger seat. He was holding his clipboard and began checking out some stuff in the car.

"What are you doing manager?" Alice asked curiously.

"Just doing a final check for the cars before the race starts." He told Alice.

Alice looks towards the manager who is just writing on his clipboard. Alice began feeling nervous because she wanted to ask him a personal question.

"Manager, there's been something I've been meaning to ask you, regarding the team."

"Sure, go ahead." The manager said casually while checking off the tick box on his clipboard.

"How bad has our team struggling in recent years?" Alice asked nervously.

The manager realizes what she means and puts down his clipboard and pen. He remained silent for a while before speaking up.

"Where did you hear this from?" The manager asked.

"Well, I heard it from a few people." Alice told nervously.

The manager breathes a small sigh and looks directly towards her.

"You shouldn't be worried about that Alice, it's something that you shouldn't worry about as a driver." The manager told her.

"I'm still worried for this team, Akinabalu Motorsports was my father's racing team and I don't want his legacies to die with it." Alice told him.

"You shouldn't be worried for this team as well, Alice. I know that we're struggling, but we're not struggling that bad you know? We can still continue racing even if we didn't perform well in this race. There's still plenty of racing to do right?" The manager told her.

"I-Is that so?" Alice asked the manager.

"Even if you didn't qualify for this race, I wouldn't let you go that easily. I see immense talent in you, Alice. Since after all, you are the daughter of the Great Shah, right?" The manager told her.

"I-I see, thanks for telling me that." Alice said as she felt a bit of relief.

"Just drive and don't worry about it alright? I am confident in our team's future." The manager said to Alice.

Alice nods and smiles towards him feeling assured. The manager fixes his glasses and continues checking off things on his list.

"Looks like everything is in tip-top shape, I'm going to check Sugimoto's car now." The manager told Alice.

Alice nods and the manager gets out and inspects the other car. 30 went by and an announcement was made from the speakers.

"In 15 minutes, all drivers please proceed to the starting line to begin the warm-up session." The speaker announced.

The team gathers together for a final team talk and a quick briefing.

"Today's race will be a clear night race, Sugimoto will be leading the race-. Wait, where's Sugi?" Ghazali asked everyone.

Alice remembers where Sugimoto was and ran into the break room and dragged Sugimoto to the team talk.

"Morning." Sugimoto said and yawned.

"Jeez Senpai, at this critical moment as well!" Alice scolds him.

"Glad you're here Sugi. You will be starting at first position while Alice is in fourth position, I want constant communication throughout the race so we try to help you guys." Ghazali told them.

They all nodded and got into the car and began moving their cars into the starting grid. The racers from all other teams began scrambling to get their cars onto the road. All the cars lined up in their correct position and a pace car was deployed.