Alice woke up from her slumber and started her early morning routine. She began with a kilometer jog around her neighborhood before sunrise, followed by a 10-minute bath. Afterward, she would wear her school uniform, have breakfast with her grandpa, and head to school. That's the usual morning routine of our protagonist, Alice Shah. After school, she would take a bus to the Akinabalu Circuit to practice for the upcoming race.
"The Akinabalu Circuit feels lively today, it seems like teams are coming in to practice for the upcoming race." Alice pondered to herself.
Alice walks towards Akinabalu Motorsport's garage, located at the Akinabalu circuit. The Akinabalu CIrcuit provides garages for teams participating in the race. They usually rent a garage a week before a race to prepare their cars. As Alice walks inside the garage, she stumbles upon the manager and Ghazali standing by the break room.
"Morning Manager!" She greeted.
"Morning to you too Alice." The manager replied.
"Morning Ally" Ghazali greets Alice.
"Good morning Gaz. Wait why did you call me Ally?" Alice said seemingly surprised.
"Yep, I usually give people nicknames to remember them better." He told her.
"Whatever you say I guess." Alice said to him.
Alice proceeded to the break room and changed into her racing attire. Alice went to inspect her car and touched the number on her car feeling the responsibility for the number she represented.
"Morning kid." Sugimoto greeted her with a head pat.
"You're getting too comfortable with petting me Senpai." She said feeling annoyed by it.
"Haha, let's get to training." He chuckled.
"Ah, not lazing around this time huh?" Alice teases him.
"The manager locked away the sofa somewhere and I don't know where he hid it. So I don't have much of a choice." Sugimoto said as he scratched his head wondering where the sofa was hidden.
The manager is seen in the distance twirling his keys and smirking at Sugimoto.
"So I guess we should do some jogging right?" Sugimoto asked Alice.
"Yup, let's lap around the garages while the others get ready." Alice said to him.
They began lapping around the garages for a while. As they were jogging, they saw other teams preparing their cars. Alice although athletic, struggled to keep up with Sugimoto as he suddenly sped up.
"S-Senpai, slow down for a bit." She said to him.
Sugimoto looked behind and noticed her falling behind. Sugimoto slowed down to match her pace and continued jogging.
"You have high stamina for being a couch potato Senpai." Alice said while trying to catch her breath.
"Well, I'm used to it by now." Sugimoto replies casually.
"Used to it eh?" Alice muttered and reminisced about the times he slacked off.
"Well to be fair, you have to double your efforts since your legs are short." Sugimoto teases her.
Alice stopped jogging and stood on the sidewalk for a while. Sugimoto looked behind and saw her clutching her fist.
"SUGIMOTO!" Alice screamed as she charged at him.
Sugimoto notices Alice suddenly charging towards him and begins sprinting away from her.
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"Kid, We're supposed to be training not playing!" Sugimoto said as he ran for his life.
"You stop running then! Let's have a nice talk together!" Alice said to him still pursuing him.
"No way! I'm not stopping!" Sugimoto said as he looked behind to see her still pursuing him.
The teams from other garages saw Sugimoto running away from Alice and they slightly chuckled seeing them run around. Ghazali walked outside the garage and noticed Alice chasing Sugimoto in front of the garages a few feet away. He took a sip of coffee and sighed.
"Glad I'm not the one getting chased, for now." Ghazali shivered as he muttered to himself.
After a while, Alice and Sugimoto returned to the garage exhausted. Ghazali went to them and handed them a bottle of water.
"You both have high stamina, huh? it's crazy you guys ran so long!" Ghazali said while genuinely surprised.
Alice and Sugimoto took a sip of water and puffs after drinking it.
"T-thanks Gaz." Alice told Ghazali.
While they were standing together, the manager came and greeted them.
"Alright team, today we're going to go around the circuit, so try to set your fastest lap, alright?" the manager said, seemingly enthusiastic.
"Time to set a new lap record for the team!" Alice said as she crunched her knuckles feeling confident.
"Heh, you wish. I already secured that years ago so good luck trying to beat my record." Sugimoto told her confidently.
"Don't get too cocky Senpai, I wouldn't want to embarrass you in front of everyone here." Alice said as she teased him.
"You're on kid!" Sugimoto said and accepted her challenge.
Sugimoto and Alice stared into each other with fire in their eyes, both wanted to prove to themselves that they were the better driver. They were not only driving as teammates but also as rivals. Ghazali and the Manager nervously smile from a distance seeing immense tension between them. Alice and Sugimoto wore their helmets and gloves before they drove their cars from the garages and into the pitlanes where the stewards gave them a quick briefing before they went onto the track.
"Alright guys, be safe and drive fast out there." Ghazali told them over the radio.
Alice and Sugimoto lapped around the Akinabalu circuit to warm up their tires. Sugimoto's Porsche 911 GT3 RS is ahead of Alice's BMW M6 GT3. Sugimoto began to speed up after crossing the starting line indicating that the fight for the fastest lap time is now on.
"Shoot I didn't notice Senpai has already sped up!" Alice was a bit distracted and began chasing Sugimoto.
"Show me what you got kid!" He uttered to himself.
Sugimoto began pushing his car and entered the triple hairpins while Alice recollected herself and followed him into the hairpins a few seconds later. There is a gap between them but Alice is determined to close it.
"Don't get too comfortable now senpai, I will catch up to you." She uttered to herself.
They both came out of the hairpins and raced to the chicane. As they entered the first straight of sector 3, they began to pass other drivers who were also there during the practice session. There, Alice passed by a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3.
"Woah a GTR!" Alice utters to herself while admiring the car.
Alice caught up with Sugimoto and began drafting on the second straight of sector 3. While Sugimoto and Alice approach the corner, the GTR suddenly appears behind them.
"The GTR from before has caught up that quickly?" Alice muttered in surprise as she looked at her side mirror.
Sugimoto and Alice began braking for the corner but suddenly the GTR dives bomb into the corner and narrowly hits Sugimoto's car.
"Woah that's dangerous you a-!" Sugimoto yelled at the driver.
Alice breathed a sigh of relief after the incident but Sugimoto on the other hand was furious and began following the GTR closely behind. As they followed each other closely, Alice felt a dark cloudy aura from Sugimoto's car.
"W-what is this Aura?" Alice muttered to herself.
The Nissan, the Porsche, and the BMW are now chasing each other through the corners of sector 4. There, Sugimoto pushed his car and began making a move.
"Time to teach you a lesson." Sugimoto said to himself.
As they were slowing down and about to exit the Curve. The 911 got beside the GTR's outside and half of Sugimoto's wheel got on the grass. The GTR was forced to give space as Sugimoto entered the chicane. Alice was shocked by Sugimoto's aggressive move to overpass the GTR.
"S-Senpai...?" She looks in admiration at his car passing the 86.
The Porsche, The GTR, and The M6 are now in the straights of sector 1 as Sugimoto widens the gap.
"Sorry bucko but you can't just pass me and act like I'm not gonna do anything about it." He said as he smirked looking out his mirror.
While he starts approaching the final corners, his car suddenly feels sluggish and his speed dwindles.
"What's happening? Why are you breaking down now!?" Sugimoto yelled.
The Porsche slowed down and began being surpassed by the Nissan and Alice's BMW. The stewards waved the yellow flags indicating a hazard on the road and a towing truck arrived and towed Sugimoto to the pit lane.
"Sorry, I pushed you too hard." Sugimoto muttered as he petted his steering.
Sugimoto got out and opened the rear hood to inspect the damage. As he inspected the problem, Alice drove back to the pit lane and went up to check on him.
"Senpai what happened back there? Why did your car suddenly slow down?" She asked in a concerned tone.
"I pushed it a bit hard today and the coolant probably broke." Sugimoto told her.
As they were talking, the GTR pitted right in front of them. The driver got out and began walking towards them. The driver took off their helmet and it was a woman with long dark hair and brown eyes.
"We meet again Asashi." The woman smiled as she told Sugimoto.
"So it was you. Fujiwara." He told as she gave her a stern look.