Everything has a beginning, and everything has an end. The day and the weekend both bid their farewells, a panorama of violet looming over Reina’s head to the east. She and the Road Runner are far from home tonight—but this road is all too familiar to her. Not only is this where she works her part-time job on top of her work at the shop...but this site here, tucked in the Hokkaido hinterland, is a sacred place for motorheads the island over.
“And there we are.” The Road Runner hungrily chews up the last few miles of road enroute to Tokachi Speedway—the first and only race track on the entire island. With little fanfare, the racing season in all of Hokkaido is soon to hibernate for the winter, beginning and ending at Tokachi as it always does. The chill November air will make for a cold, slick race track—a nice challenge for the series regulars who call the circuit home.
The Road Runner lets out a brief hiccup. The fuel needle teeters on the brink after the long trip from Sapporo.
“I know, girl, I know… Almost there.” Reina gently pats the dashboard. It has just enough gas to get all the way there on one tank, but she’s cutting it pretty close. She’ll have to stop at the local pump before parking at the circuit.
“It’s almost not even worth it without a good daily driver… A good bit of this paycheck’s just gonna go to gas for the trip back home.”
Being the flattest, coldest and sparsest part of Japan, Hokkaido isn’t particularly attractive for circuit calendars nor developers—and it would be one thing if it were close to Sapporo, but Tokachi is a three-hour trip by car, flanked on all sides by miles and miles of farmland. As far as race tracks go, Tokachi is a desolate place.
Once upon a time, however, it did have a claim to fame: the Tokachi 24 Hours. The Japanese Le Mans. The longest endurance race on the grand touring calendar, shining a light on its little speck of land as the biggest names on the circuit dueled for its prize—including an electrifying young woman by the name of Sami Kageyama. The Queen of Tokachi.
Alas, nobody could justify driving that far out into the wilderness after the bubble burst. In 2009, following the track owners’ bankruptcy, Tokachi was dropped from the schedule, and in the years since, the circuit has all but lost its presence.
Like Aikawa Auto, Tokachi tries to carry on in spite of itself. Like Aikawa Auto, Tokachi’s glory days are far, far behind it.
Reina checks herself into the circuit after a quick stop for fuel, the sound of rumbling engines and the smell of burning gasoline making her feel right at home. She won’t be racing out there today, nor is she a part of any racing team; instead, she moonlights as a track worker. It’s a thankless job, but someone’s gotta do it. As much as she wishes she could be out there tearing up the tarmac, that’s just not in the cards. But the pay is alright, at least...and the track’s curator always makes her feel welcome.
“Glad you could make it out, Reina! You’re just in time.”
“Good! I know I was cutting it close a bit.”
The old dog’s chipper as ever. He can’t see too well with those old eyes of his anymore, but that distinctive blonde always puts a smile on his face—just like old times. He remembers those golden days when Super GT and Super Endurance would roll on into town, along with the track’s own hometown heroes. Though he may be long in the tooth and gray in the locks now, that nostalgia hasn’t left him one bit.
“Well, you’re here, and that’s the important thing. Y’see, I was hoping you could fill in for somebody tonight.”
“Oh?”
“Our old flag man’s been sick for a while. He couldn’t make it out tonight, so I’ve been needing somebody to step up and take his place. And I was thinking it should be you.”
Reina’s taken aback. Being a flag man at the local track is a high honor. Her hard work and diligence over the last couple years must have struck a chord with him.
“You’ve really stuck your neck out for us, even after all the stuff you’re dealing with. So hey, I say it’s about time we threw you a bone. Wanna start with the flag man duty tonight?”
“I… I’d love to! Thank you!” With a bow, Reina humbly accepts her new position.
“Heh. Guess I should be callin’ it flag woman now.” He can’t help but feel proud of the young lady—even if she herself has doubts about her future, he’ll always remember where she came from. Surely she’ll get it all figured out.
“Your mother was always good at that, makin’ people rethink what women could do.”
***
One by one, the entrants funnel in for Tokachi’s final race of the year—a footnote of a league that serves as a stepping stone on the long, long road to the big leagues. The field is littered with drivers of every shape and size: have-beens, never-weres, pay drivers, hobbyists just racing for the fun of it…
But there’s one driver who rises above them all—one with the potential for a long and lucrative career. She starts on the pole tonight, as she always does...and as the lights go out and the green flag drops, she asserts her authority over the field with one smooth motion.
Yuzu Tachikawa goes to work.
“Man, she’s fast…!” By the time Reina is done waving the green flag from her perch on high, Yuzu is already commanding her machine into the first turn, leaving everyone else in the dust. She’s completely dominated this season, and her performance is no mere fluke—she’s one of Hokkaido’s hottest racing prospects in a long, long time. You can tell by her face that she drives with a poise belying her age, her amber eyes locked onto the track like the sight of a rifle. This is exactly what’s expected of her...and once she finishes this season, it’s on to bigger and better things.
(Yup… Just one more race of this.) For lack of competition, Yuzu is almost bored behind the wheel. The thrill of racing for racing’s sake has started to wear off; she has her sights set on the future now. Ahead of her lies the chaotic world of contracts, sponsorships, marketing… Racing is not a cheap endeavor, and if she wants any shot at making it big, she’ll need to spread her name as far and wide as she can. Stomping curbs in some no-name feeder series isn’t going to get her anywhere in that regard… She needs a new ride.
But she knows by now not to daydream behind the wheel. Less than an hour left in this finale, and then she can pack it up and go home.
Yuzu nimbly navigates Tokachi’s tricky turns, her movements sharp and precise. She drives in the style of her childhood hero, Sami Kageyama, emulating her boldness and measured aggression to a tee. It’s not a stretch to say that Kageyama inspired her to get behind the wheel in the first place—with her three class victories in the Tokachi 24 Hours, Kageyama showed to her that women can still reach the top in a man’s sport. That a world of kings still has room for a Queen. Every day, every race, she follows in her footsteps, trusting in her idol and the example she set.
The white flag waves for her, and she assertively takes it. She notices, in that split-second, that the usual flag man isn’t up there tonight—and that a peculiar-looking girl is up there in his stead.
(That flag girl… She looks kinda like her.) The dark skin, the blonde hair… It all checks out.
(Is that really…?)
She stops herself. She can think about that later—she has a race to win. Just pace yourself, hit your marks, and the results will come to you.
Yuzu thunders through turn one for the final time; to the surprise of no one, she’s just about lapped the entire field. The checkered flag greets her at the finish line to complete her sweep of the season, her crew members in the paddock jumping for joy. Everybody at the circuit knows they’ve just watched the beginning of something truly special.
(And that, as they say, is that.)
Night finally descends over the speedway, and with its arrival, the season comes to an abrupt and understated end. That’s how Yuzu’s always done things: keep moving forward as fast as possible. The season—the year—might as well be the past already; she’s already got her sights set on the bigger picture, and all the opportunities that come with.
There’s just one question left nagging on her mind before she can put this league behind her: who is that flag girl?
“I think I’ll stick around for a bit…” Ordinarily, she would be packing her things and heading out by now—her parents, after celebrating her victory with her, are waiting to take her back home to Obihiro, around 40 minutes to the north. Ironically, despite her pedigree as a racing driver, she’s not actually old enough to drive on public roads yet. She’d rather not make her parents wait, but…
“...I’ll just ask if they can wait a bit for me.”
Her curiosity compels her to stay behind and inquire about this mystery girl. The resemblance can’t be mere coincidence—and though she may be overstepping her bounds, she doesn’t want to waste this chance to learn more about her childhood hero. Yuzu bides her time and waits for the track workers to congregate at the ticket office for their payday. The moment of truth arrives…
“Good work out there, Reina! You looked like a natural.”
“Thanks. I’m just happy I didn’t botch anything.”
“C’mon, you worry too much. Right, here’s your payday…” Being the flag man comes with a nice boost to her wage. It’ll cover the gas and then some; maybe Reina can treat herself to a nice meal for her birthday next week.
“Thank you!” Reina knows she doesn’t need to bow, but she does anyway.
“Not a problem. You take care now!”
“You too!”
Reina stuffs the check in her worn-out wallet and starts her familiar walk to the parking lot, the nerves from her new shift finally wearing off. It’ll be a long drive back to Sapporo, but she doesn’t mind—it always clears her head and takes her mind off things for a little while.
“Uh, excuse me. Sorry…”
“Hm?”
Reina turns her head to find a petite figure gliding through the darkness to meet her. Her short raven hair blends in well with the evening haze, swaying gently as she makes her approach. Reina’s been to these races enough times to know who she is: for reasons unknown yet, Yuzu Tachikawa has something to say to her.
“Oh! You’re Ms. Tachikawa, right?”
It feels strange to have people call her that when she’s not even an adult yet. She can’t wait to just get her teenage awkwardness behind her.
“Y-Yeah. I, uh, I had a question real quick, if you don’t mind.” She struggles to get her thoughts out of her stammering mouth. Despite her cool and confident exterior, she’s not the best with words—especially considering who she’s talking to.
“Oh, uh, what’s your name?”
“My name’s Reina Aikawa. Pleased to meet you!” Reina flashes a warm smile back at the flustered racer.
(Aikawa…?)
“So do you, um… Do you know Sami Kageyama? You looked like her, so...”
Reina blinks for a second, thrown for a bit of a loop. They don’t go by her father’s name anymore, but that was indeed what they called her mother at the height of her career.
“Oh, uh, I do, actually. She’s my mom!”
“She is?!”
The floodgate of emotions bursts all at once for the starstruck Yuzu. She really is talking to the daughter of her hero! She can barely even process what to process next—what questions to ask, what connections to make, what kind of amazing possibilities this presents to her. Maybe she can actually meet Sami herself, or even ask for lessons! There’s just so much to—
(Dammit, Yuzu, focus! One thing at a time!)
“H-Holy crap! I can’t believe it… S-Sorry, I’m just a really big fan of hers.”
“I remember watching her every year as a kid. I wasn’t old enough to see her first two wins, but I got to be there for the third one. I wish I could’ve gotten her autograph back then…”
“Yeah, that one was pretty special. I remember she was telling me she was thinking of hanging it up that year...and then she won, haha.”
“I couldn’t wait to tell everybody back at school after that.”
“You and me both…” Seems they both remember it like it was yesterday.
Sami Kageyama, as she was once called, made an immediate impression when the Tokachi 24 Hours began in 1994—not even having a kid a couple years prior could slow her down. The Hokkaido native made a name for herself as an ace track specialist, knowing every corner by heart. Her team won their class in both of the first two races, and though she would go on to suffer a drought at Tokachi over the following years, she persevered to notch her third and final class victory in 2002. Reina remembers every detail from that hot summer day: the crowd, the confetti, the cheers from her friends and family…
Crazy how long ago that feels now.
“I just asked because I’ve always wanted to meet her! Sorry for being so awkward…”
“It’s okay! She’s mentioned you once or twice, actually. She’s really excited to see what you can do next year!”
“She said what?!”
Cloud Nine, population: Yuzu.
“U-Um, well… The next time she comes down to Tokachi, I’d love to talk to her. Maybe she could give me some racing pointers, or something…?”
“I’m sure she’d love to!” Having said that, Reina sheepishly scratches her head. “I’m not sure when she might be back on all cylinders, though. She’s been recovering from back surgery for the last couple months.”If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Oh…” I guess it makes sense, Yuzu thinks to herself. Not even her heroes can escape the clutches of Father Time…
“She’s...not racing anymore, is she?”
“She’s not, no. She hung it up after that last Tokachi race.”
“What are you guys doing now, then? Do you race?”
“Mmm… I used to. I did a bit of karting when I was younger, but I never made it very far. I just don’t have the natural talent she does—and racing’s a lot more expensive than it used to be. It was hard to justify the cost.”
“Yeah…” She can’t help but feel a little disappointed that the Kageyama racing legacy began and ended with Sami...to the extent that even the name retired along with her. But perhaps that’s being unfair to Reina—not many children live up to their champion parents in racing.
“We do have a little auto shop back in Sapporo. We actually managed to get our decals on her cars for a couple years—that’s what that big Aikawa Speed Shop logo was!”
“Aikawa… Oh, of course!” Yuzu facepalms. “How did I never notice that?”
“It wasn’t the most obvious thing, in fairness.”
“Now I kinda wanna ask for a tour.”
“I’d be happy to one of these days!”
As much as Reina would love to stay and chat, November brashly reminds her that the mercury is quickly dropping. The wind tickles her face enough to force a sneeze from her reddening nose.
“Just maybe not toni… Ah… A-choo! Brrr… I’m not built for the cold.”
“Do you have to head back?”
“Yeah. I gotta get back to Sapporo.”
(Mmm… I wanna talk more, but if she has to go…)
“Actually, if you don’t mind talking some more, uh...Obihiro’s on the way there. We could carpool, maybe?”
“Oh! Well, sure! I don’t mind.”
“Thank you! Oh, and um… You can just call me Yuzu, okay?”
“Heehee. Sure.” With that, the two enterprising girls make their way to the parking lot. Yuzu smooths things over with their parents—they’re actually thrilled to hear that their awkward daughter made a friend tonight. With their departure, the two of them are left to their own devices.
Yuzu still isn’t sure what to make of Reina. It’s clear how much she sticks out from the crowd, just like her mother did...but she doesn’t appear to be walking the same path. Not from what she can tell, anyway. If she’s not a racer then, what is she…?
“Okay, there we are.”
Yuzu can see the shadow of a car in the distance, but she can’t actually make it out from here, aside from its...boxy outline. Reina isn’t holding up the key to unlock it either… Does it just not have central locking? What kind of car is that supposed to be?
Finally, a nearby lightpost flickers on as it detects their approach, giving Yuzu her answer. The Road Runner is bathed in gold...and Yuzu is completely flabbergasted.
“...What the heck is that?” Yuzu blurts out without thinking. She covers her mouth in embarrassment immediately after. Her thoughts, however, remain unfiltered:
(That thing’s a dinosaur! What the...?!)
“Haha. Yeah, she’s not your usual car. This is my mom’s, actually.”
“Sami drives this?”
“Yup! This was actually the car she cut her teeth on, way back in the day. This was how she learned to race.”
“Really…?” At this point, Yuzu isn’t sure if Reina’s yanking her chain or not.
(Well, I guess it would explain why she stuck to GT cars and not open wheelers…?)
“And the engine was done all at our shop too. I can pop open the hood, if you’d like to take a look!”
“Well, uh...sure.”
Yuzu has never seen one of these behemoth muscle cars in real life before, but she knows about their history. Once upon a time, these brutes were the fastest cars layman money could buy, even embarrassing prissy Ferraris and other European thoroughbreds at venues like Daytona and Le Mans.
But that was eons ago. The muscle car’s time in the sun has long since set...yet for whatever reason, Reina and her family’s shop never got that memo, because she opens up the hood to reveal…
“O-Oh…”
It is the single largest car engine she has ever seen—an overwhelming behemoth that the engine bay struggles to contain. Displacing ten entire litres and paired with a supercharger for overkill, this is Aikawa Auto’s crown jewel. The priceless heirloom they’ve kept for generations, passed down from its original owner to the scion of the shop today.
...Why?
“This is what your shop does?”
“Yup! We specialize in aftermarket mods for street cars. This car here was bought new by my grandma—and she designed and built the engine herself years later. The whole thing is a custom job.”
Reina’s grandmother may have had a few screws loose, but her parts and engines certainly didn’t. She and her husband built Aikawa Auto brick by brick way back in the 50s—and the quality of their work spoke for itself. She stuck out like a sore thumb, but she didn’t care. She did things her way until her dying breath.
They took Clara out of America, but they couldn’t take America out of her.
“I didn’t realize there was a market for engines like these.”
“Well...there used to be, at least. Before Hokkaido had race circuits like Tokachi, all they had were public roads.” She’s not sure whether she should be admitting this out loud. “So, she’d take this car and race it out on the streets. Eventually she took it down to Honshu too.”
“She got her start in street racing?”
“Mhm. And she was really good at it. These engines garnered a rep for being practically indestructible—they made for perfect street racing machines. They can put in tons and tons of work and just keep on going...like this one here~”
Yuzu concedes that it was probably a very formidable machine for its time—and she would be right. Sami Aikawa, then a fiery upstart, was already making waves with it in Hokkaido’s underground street racing scene. Everybody knew they were in for a wild, wild ride when “the Yankee” came rolling up in her unbeatable speed demon; how she managed to wrangle the unruly beast was a mystery to them all. Those highway shootouts earned the Road Runner its time-tested nickname: the Ten-Litre Terror.
That was the golden age of Aikawa Auto. Word of mouth and fleet of foot spread their business like wildfire among the motorheads and adrenaline junkies of the world. They had earned themselves a diehard fanbase, their shop regularly bustling with aftermarket monsters of all shapes and sizes—all thanks to Clara’s mechanical wizardry and Sami’s tour de force.
But nothing lasts forever, of course. Street racing went the way of the dodo in the 90s thanks to some infamous crashes and incidents—and good riddance to it, in Yuzu’s opinion. It was a remnant of an uncivilized time, an error to be corrected. The circuit was the next logical step, and everyone was happy to take it—even Sami, who traded in her Yankee moniker for a much more enduring one on the turns of Tokachi.
So what about this ancient land barge keeps the Aikawa family stuck in the past…?
“Admittedly, there’s not much demand for aftermarket stuff like this anymore—especially not for American cars here in Japan. This old girl hasn’t raced in quite some time...”
(Yeah, I can imagine.)
“Huh…”
“Buuut she’ll still get you home! Just, as long as you don’t mind the noise.”
“I should be fine, given the stuff I drive.”
The antique hood slams shut, prompting Reina to make her way to the passenger side and unlock the door for her guest. Yuzu deftly sits herself down…and though she isn’t a fan of 40 year-old interior design, she has to give credit where it’s due: the seat is plenty comfy.
“Aaaalright,” Reina exhales as she files into the Road Runner, the startup process so routine that it’s all in her muscle memory. Press the clutch, pump it twice, hold the throttle down…
*VRRRRMMM!*
Yuzu feels like she just got shocked in the heart.
“Wakes you up, doesn’t it?”
“For better and for worse.”
Taking extra care to get the throttle just right as she shifts into first, Reina gets the hulking machine underway, the loud rumble of the Aikawa 611 echoing into the night. It’s conspicuous beyond measure—an outsider on the streets. Race cars are built for private circuits first, but here this thing is, masquerading as a car for public roads…
(So this is what Sami really does…)
(...I wonder why.)
***
Soon, the humble lights of the hibernating Tokachi give way to the rural expanse of Hokkaido, the mountains gleaming faintly in the moonlight. Japan’s breadbasket may be modest, but it’s every bit as important as the rest of the country—and, in the right places, every bit as beautiful too.
That said, the scenery doesn’t do much for Yuzu anymore—she’s been up and down this road countless times, committed every last peak and trough to memory. It doesn’t take her long to adjust to the guttural growl of the Road Runner’s engine either. She looks over at Reina working the Plymouth’s antiquated controls… It’s evident to her that Reina does know what she’s doing—she might even have been selling herself short when talking about her racing ability earlier. But she’s not doing herself any favors, Yuzu thinks to herself.
“Let me know if it’s too hot or cold in here… No AC, though, so I can only make it hotter unless you wanna open your window.”
“I’m fine, but thanks.”
Traffic lazily flows along the road, the Road Runner mingling with more normal cars as it trudges through the countryside. It feels weird for Yuzu to be riding in Sami’s old “race” car. There’s an element of nostalgia here, sure, knowing that this was the car that started it all for her hero…
But the way she sees it, cars like these belong in museums, not alongside modern makes. It’s like trying to jam a square peg into a round hole.
“So, um, if you don’t mind me asking…”
“Yeah?”
Yuzu tries to formulate her questions without sounding rude. “What was it like at the auto shop when Sami was racing at Tokachi?”
“Hmm… I don’t remember too much about it—I wasn’t very old at the time. But I remember business was still booming. We still had our diehard customers from her street racing days, and all the publicity from Tokachi helped shine a light on us.”
“Did you ever switch from stock stuff to racing equipment?”
“We thought about that a lot, but I think in the end, that wasn’t the scene we wanted. But funny enough, racing was how we really took off back in the 60s: there was this stock car league that wanted us to help build race-spec parts for their imported cars.”
“The league never got off the ground, but it did get us some valuable customers—and my grandma loved working on those kinds of cars. They were simple, but really effective.”
“Huh… So was it more about the racing or more about the cars for her?”
“The cars, I think… My grandma was American, actually.”
“Huh, really?”
“Yup. She was born in American Samoa. My grandpa was Japanese; they met each other after the war, and then they settled down here to start their business.”
“She was probably the smartest person I’ve ever known… She could make anything and everything work—you gave her an engine and she just went to town. I really look up to her...and I know Mom does too.”
Yuzu takes in every word, equally curious and confused. The more she hears about Aikawa Auto, the more it turns into this...anachronism. A company cruising on nostalgia for a time long gone. The world of cars is always evolving—the engineering, the racing, the circuits, everything is an exercise in human ingenuity and innovation. Every waking day is another step forward for the industry at large, pushing everyone to walk alongside it...so why did Sami just stop? Why didn’t they bother to restructure their business model? Why did they cling to this pigeonholed niche of theirs?
(Why couldn’t they just get with the times?)
“It just seems kinda...weird, to me. That Sami went into racing, but the company didn’t really follow her there.”
“Yeah… We might’ve been able to make it work if we switched to GT stuff—maybe if we became a parts supplier for GT teams or we struck some other partnership like that. But, well, that’s just never how we’ve done things. We’ve never been the kind of shop to chase trends like that.”
“Why not?”
“Well… These are just the things we like. We’ve always done things our way, because that’s what we enjoy doing. I think that’s why Sami started to feel a bit disillusioned with Tokachi in those last few years… It just wasn’t what she wanted to do anymore.”
“Why just the same thing as always, though?”
“Mmm…”
Reina has no counter.
“S-Sorry, I just…” Yuzu wasn’t trying to hurt Reina, but she can tell those words stung.
“No, it’s okay. It’s a valid question…and I think you’ve got a point. It’s probably why we’re in the situation we are now.”
“Sooner or later, it’s gonna be up to me to answer that question… I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it, but, well…” Reina lets out a heavy sigh. “Something’s gotta give.”
“I, um… I hope it works out.”
“Thanks…”
The atmosphere in the car takes an awkward turn, much to Yuzu’s chagrin. It just doesn’t make sense to her...and she feels like it doesn’t even make sense to Reina either. So many questions and so few answers…
Her saving grace is that the trip is almost over. Obihiro looms on the horizon, the largest town in the area by far. The minutes pass slow as molasses while Yuzu gives Reina directions, soft-spoken for fear of poisoning the atmosphere further. The Road Runner carefully snakes through the narrow city streets, finding its way to an unassuming little house on the outskirts of town. Her parents’ car is parked outside—an unassuming, utilitarian sedan, perfectly suited for its environment.
“Thanks for taking me home, Reina. And, um...sorry about earlier…”
“It’s alright! We’ll figure something out, I’m sure.” Reina puts on a brave face, even if she can’t put her whole heart behind her words.
“I’ll talk to my mom about maybe having a meet-up at Tokachi one of these days. I’ll keep you posted!”
“Thanks… That’d be nice.”
With that, Yuzu unceremoniously exits the Road Runner, stepping out into the cold evening air and watching her chauffeur pull away into the dark. She can still hear the Road Runner well after it’s turned the corner, its echoing engine finding its way to her ears for miles and miles until it finally fades away.
*sigh* “Where do I even go from there…?”
A small part of her wishes she hadn’t met Reina at all—all that whimsical insight into her childhood hero came at a certain price. Perhaps if she’d just gone home with her parents, she could have kept that idealized image of Sami that she formed in her head, unburdened by the dire straits of their family business.
Or maybe this is just a part of growing up. Time comes for us all, and nobody’s perfect; even a legend like Sami was bound to hit a snag or two in her life. Perhaps she should take this as a learning experience—when you’re racing at breakneck speed, you don’t have the time to look back at the past. You’ve gotta keep your head forward, now and always.
...That’s what she’s always thought, anyway.
(Maybe she had her reasons, and I just...don’t get them yet.)
At any rate, Yuzu has school to worry about in the morning. She retreats inside her home and resumes her life as normal—looking to the future, as she always does. Maybe when she’s all grown up, and she’s had her own illustrious racing career, she’ll be able to see things the way her hero did.
But for now, she’s just a young lady with a bright, bright future.
***
Reina was not prepared to face the harsh reality of her family business tonight. Ordinarily, the drive back to Sapporo is an opportunity to take her mind off things, to calm her spirits amid the sprawling bounty of nature. But she can’t stop thinking about Yuzu’s words as she maneuvers the Road Runner along the mountain roads.
She can’t just drive away from her problems forever. She thought the Road Runner would be the rock that holds her steady, keeping her afloat however long she needed...but now she’s not so sure. The answers won’t just come to her.
“She’s right… She’s right, and I didn’t want to admit it.”
It’s a lot for a college junior to think about—especially on top of all the other things she has to worry about—but, well...that’s life. She’s an adult now, and adults have to face difficult questions about their future. The answers they find make or break their lives, every decision a turning point that shapes the path before them. She’s starting to realize that she can’t rely on her past anymore… As the future of the company, it’s her duty to shape it.
...Perhaps now’s not the best time to be thinking about these things—it’s been a long, long day as is. Reina turns the CD player on… Journey. The stereotypical 80s sound, invoking all the nostalgia of the good old days.
It fits, in a wry sort of way.
Reina finishes her trip without another word, letting the music calm her weary head. She eventually makes it back to Sapporo—once again on fumes. After a brief stop at the local gas station, she brings the beast back to its lair: the Aikawa Auto building, now dark and devoid of activity. They’ve already closed for the day.
Reina opens the garage door, and the automated lights welcome her back inside. The Road Runner will hibernate for another night yet, kept in limbo until that next fateful decision is made. Reina can’t help but see the car just a little bit differently now, along with the old brick and mortar surrounding it. She’s relied on that old girl, leaned on its shoulders… Now, it relies on her. She has to be the one to step up this time—and she’ll have to do it sooner rather than later.
Is she ready? Only time will tell.
“Good night.”
The lights flicker off. The garage door shuts. Aikawa Auto will wait one more night.