Chapter 11: Poor choices

Once inside the car, Haruto had gone right back to shivering, inevitably.

(What do I do now!? Why the hell did I accept that duel!? Why am I such an imbecile!?)

As was par for the course for him, clarity only really settled over him when it was too late for it to make a difference.

Upon pressing the prompt for the duel race, Haruto’s field of view had entirely distorted into a blinding flash of light. The very next moment, he was inside his Mustard Roller, stopped idly beside the redheaded girl on a completely different strip of road. While she readily sat atop her motorcycle, as if expecting someone, or something, any moment, Haruto simply recoiled in his seat.

Had they just completely moved locations without even a warning!? What was even happening anymore?

The simple, humble (disturbingly dirty) residential area they’d previously stood in just a moment prior had now been replaced by a complete and utter chaos of broken billboards, towering, rotting skyscrapers and overlapping roads, making it barely possible for him to even discern his surroundings at first sight.

Scrambling in place to figure out any details he could, he opened up the map and checked for his position. The two of them had been moved several kilometers further into that ghost town, and placed side by side, unable to even turn their vehicles on.

What were they waiting for, now?

He soon managed to remember.

“Attention, racers. This duel match is about to start. Please, get in position and start your engines. Whoever wins shall be rewarded. Whoever loses, shall lose their soul.”

“I heard it the first time…” muttered Haruto.

He brought his fingers around the keys and turned it right again, stepping carefully onto the extra pedal nobody had asked for.

(If you’re going to force me into a racing game, at least make it feel like a racing game, goddammit!)

He glanced back at the map to his right. A new dot had appeared, pointing out the finish line around hundred kilometers from them, or so. The map made it look like it was just northwest, straight ahead of them, but he knew that with those messy streets, things surely wouldn’t be that simple. There should still be patrols all over the place. Parked vehicles and any other possible rubble or lying trash could be an obstacle, and a disturbingly long, almost cartoonishly wide line he had spotted on the map, running along over the start near his position suggested him they would be racing under a suspended railway at some point of the race, which, he mused between nervous sweating, could either go very uneventfully, or really, really badly, if the patrol cars were any indication. What if there were patrol trains or something!? Running right over them? Forget the race, the two of them would be dead on the spot!

At least, the map seemed to suggest it later moved further downwards, lowering it gradually to make connection with an underground tunnel.

Weird trains. If he at least made it there, he at least wouldn’t have to worry about the trains anymore. But still…

The starting counter was back, going down one second at a time in the corner of his eye.

Glancing out the window, he would unexpectedly lock sights with the girl, who would look to her right one last time before the match began, her eyes once again obscured by the murky helmet.

Through the gap in his open window, he heard her voice reach him from all the way over there.

It no longer mocked him. It no longer tittered.

Awaiting the ‘go’ signal just left of him, the girl known as ‘Hellfire’ was cool as ice.

“Savor this last drive, Maekawa. It’s the only pleasure you’ll get before I send you to oblivion.”

“Geee…” he snorted, looking around the Mustard’s rather pristine interior. “What an honor you’re granting me…”

Now, more than ever, she was determined to end him.

However, upon recollecting everything that had gone one just a moment prior, the fear in Haruto’s heart went away once again. The only real pleasure that situation gave him, faint but true, was the confirmation that one of his ridiculous guesses had actually been right for a change. The fact she was so determined to end him now, not a bit of joviality left, meant he had likely been spot on.

She was hurt, thus vulnerable. Prone to make more mistakes. Just as he was.

They would have been on an equal playing field in that case… Weren’t it for the fact that she was 26 levels above him.

(Stupid, stupid!! Why do you always get yourself in this absurd situations, you stupid git?!)

A long gone memory from his past resounded in his heart again.

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You didn't think. That's just something you never do, Maekawa!

On the other hand, though…

He glanced back at the scarlet motorcycle.

It was no sports car… But it would do. It would satiate his thirst for revenge, whether he won or not. Just making a dent or two on it would make him happy, such was his desperation for some payback. That was all he asked for. After that was done, little did he care if he got run over by some crazed police car, or crushed by a train.

The counter was reaching its limit.

‘3. 2. 1.’

The word ‘GO’ quickly took form in the sky above, framed in black and white before them.

Pressing down their respective gas, the two vengeful teens wasted no time taking off and away into the distance, leaving behind the inconspicuous piece of road they had been waiting on just then, gray, lumbering clouds of smoke left behind as they rushed toward their objective.

The road before them would be mostly straight for several meters, allowing what at first he’d thought to be decent space for him to overtake her. By default she should be the fastest, but if he could reach her in just a moment in the few moments he was allowed to be with her, side by side, and take her out flying with just a little sideways push, the chances of her surviving the fall were minuscule. He would likely conquer another instant victory just from that alone.

As the enormous buildings on both sides of the elevated road quickly disappeared one after the other, among them the boy had soon been able to spot the place far ahead where their mostly uniform lineup would open up to make way for the fabled suspended train tracks.

(So, it’s really above us, then?)

He felt his palms sweat harder than before as he swapped the car to the highest gear he could manage. Something didn’t feel right about that bridge. Maybe just the short time he had spent in this crazy world had been enough to make him paranoid, but he didn’t feel safe even approaching, let alone driving under it. On the other hand, he couldn’t let the matchstick girl win.

Then again, even if he was just imagining things and there was nothing wrong with the elevated bridge straight ahead, turning to run just above the road they were now on, just passing by it without complications did not mean he was home free. The girl’s vehicle was more durable and faster than his, and her skill was the deadliest he had seen so far. He couldn’t afford to allow her any of those advantages over him, so whether the road ahead was safe or not, the decision for him was obvious. As long as she stayed there, right next to his car in her increasing attempts to build up speed, it should be fine, but once she finally managed to put some distance between the two…

(I’ll take her out before either of us even reaches that place!)

With a violent turn of the wheel, Haruto veered sideways to his right, intending to finish off that crazy girl once and for all.

He would ram laterally into her with all of the Roller’s might behind him, and in an instant she’d be flying with the birds before hitting the hard asphalt and breaking some bones.

“Be gone, already!!”

Before he could manage to even touch her, however, he heard the deafening screech of her wheels scuffing wildly against the hard asphalt, and in a moment she was behind him.

“Poor choice, Maekawa!” she laughed. “Did you forget I have brakes?”

He looked into his rearview mirror. She was looking straight at him through the car’s dust-covered windows – but she looked straight at him nonetheless, as if no obstacle made a difference. She was measuring his shock. Savoring his panic. And right there, he was giving her exactly what she wanted.

“Aha… So you want to blow me out of the race before there can even be a race, isn’t that right~? … Well, two can play that game!!”

“Assigned skill activated: Fireblast.”

Haruto felt each hair freeze at the end of his neck.

“That’s impossible…”

And yet, however impossible it could be, he could see the glow of a bright, burning light suddenly enveloping her raised hand.

He looked onto the corner of his eye, and his own timer was still at 5:35. Not even half…

“What is impossible, exactly!?” she laughed. “Higher level, faster loading. Common sense is not your strong suit, is it?”

Letting dawn on himself just how big of a dump he’d gotten himself into.

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