3:00 a.m., somewhere on the streets of Tokyo.
The roar of engines shattered the silence of the night.
More than a dozen colorful modified cars had gathered in front of long-closed shops. A group of punk-dressed street racers had brought along their scantily clad girlfriends, chatting and joking as they waited for someone.
Five minutes later, their target appeared.
A blue Impreza WRX stopped beside a dumpster. Its driver pushed open the door and stepped out.
As though intimidated by his lone-wolf bearing, everyone stopped what they were doing. Not a single person dared meet the newcomer's eyes. Finally, half a minute later, someone could no longer stand it and cursed, "Fuck, Ito Ken, turn off your goddamn high beams!"
"Sorry, sorry." The racer named Ito Ken apologized as he leaned back into the car and switched off the lights, allowing everyone to finally see the newcomer's face.
He had green hair shaped like a broom and an expression as cold as an iceberg. Despite all the people before him, his eyes held only one person. With a disdainful snort, he said, "Inoue Kentaro, why did you call me out so late at night?"
"It's nothing important. It's just that the title of Meteor of Speed ought to have a new owner." The speaker was a man in a jacket sleeping on the roof of a car with his eyes closed, while his girlfriend gently fed him grapes.
"Forget it. You're nothing but a defeated opponent of mine." Ito Ken sneered.
"Bastard, don't look down on me!!! I'm not the same as I was before!" The man in the jacket opened his eyes like a fierce tiger awakening from its slumber, blazing fighting spirit burning in his gaze. "This time, I'm staking all of a man's dignity on it. I won't lose to you again!"
As though he had felt the resolve coming from his opponent, even Ito Ken's icy expression softened. After a long silence, he said, "I understand, Inoue. Then let's let speed do the talking."
After saying that, both men returned to their respective race cars. Inoue Kentaro's girlfriend walked in front of the two vehicles and, amid the crowd's cheers and whistles, pulled off her bra and tossed it into the air.
The instant the bra hit the ground, both race cars shot forward at the same time.
Ito Ken and Inoue Kentaro had been rivals for years. Both came from well-off families, and their fathers had business dealings with one another. They had originally been inseparable childhood friends, and it was Inoue Kentaro who had first brought Ito Ken into this circle. But as Ito Ken's driving skills steadily improved until he surpassed his friend, Inoue Kentaro, being so prideful, found it increasingly hard to save face.
In the end, their friendship failed to withstand that test, and they gradually drifted apart.
Over the years, Inoue Kentaro had challenged him many times, though he lost far more often than he won. Still, Ito Ken had never underestimated him, because Inoue Kentaro improved every time he came, whether in his car or his technique, posing no small threat to him.
Therefore, Ito Ken had no choice but to give him his full attention.
Come on, let me see what you've learned this time.
As Ito Ken thought this, he floored the accelerator.
The two race cars traded the lead.
But the next moment, Ito Ken's eyes widened. At the intersection, an earthy yellow van emerged from the darkness like a ghost, seemingly from nowhere.
Damn it! Why is there still a vehicle on the road this late at night?!
Cold sweat broke out across Ito Ken's forehead. At such close range and at such speed, he had no time to react at all. A catastrophic crash was imminent, and he knew that Inoue Kentaro, racing alongside him, was probably feeling the same despair.
Then he witnessed the most unforgettable sight of his life. The battered van showed no sign of slowing down as it charged straight at him like a raging bull.
When the two vehicles were less than five meters apart, the L300 suddenly made an eerie drift. Its body slid sideways under the force of inertia, and at their closest point, less than a centimeter separated their doors.
Every hair on Ito Ken's body stood on end. Yet the driver inside the L300 merely held the steering wheel with one hand while flipping through something with the other.
Gum?
At the instant they crossed paths, Ito Ken saw what the other man was holding. His brain simply could not process it.
What the hell?! Ito Ken could not help crying out. Was he flipping through gum at a time like this? But something even more unbelievable happened next. The L300 accelerated and overtook his WRX. Though there was no intersection ahead, that battered van suddenly turned again without warning, slipping into an alley barely as wide as its own body and vanishing from sight.
Only the two race cars remained. Though they were still racing, their speed continued to drop until both eventually came to a stop. Ito Ken and Inoue Kentaro got out of their cars and stared at each other.
"Still want to race?" Ito Ken finally asked after a long while.
"..."
"What's the point of continuing when we can't even outrun a delivery van?" Inoue Kentaro said listlessly. "You can keep the title of Meteor of Speed. I'm planning to leave this circle and go home to inherit the family business."
"...I was actually planning to go study in Europe after this race too," Ito Ken admitted.
"Is that so?" Inoue Kentaro was somewhat surprised, then sighed. "Come to think of it, it's been many years since we last had a conversation like this."
The two looked at each other and said in unison, "How about we go get a drink?"
Zhang Heng had no idea that because of him, one man had lost his dream of racing, nor did he know that because of him, two men had rekindled their old friendship.
For him, it had simply been another routine day of deliveries. Tokyo was known as the capital of drifting and had more modified-car enthusiasts than anywhere else in the world. As the background introduction had said, these people generally operated at night, and Zhang Heng would occasionally run into street racers while making deliveries.
The overwhelming majority were amateurs like Ito Ken and Inoue Kentaro, who would happily stage some so-called manly showdown after coming up with some random chuunibyou excuse. Zhang Heng had no time to wait for them to determine a winner, so whenever he encountered them, he simply overtook them to save time.
This was already his ninth month of learning to drive. A month ago, he had completed the drifting exercises Takeda Tetsuya had assigned him, and his Automobile Driving Skills had risen from LV1 to LV2. In addition, his repair and modification skill had risen to LV1. This car was now completely different from when he had first taken it over. He had replaced its core components from top to bottom, though its exterior was still that of an L300.
Unlike other drivers, Zhang Heng did not paint his car in every color imaginable just so everyone would know it was modified. After all, his funds were limited.
To buy parts, he had been forced to take on another job. Takeda Tetsuya introduced him to the owner of a small scrapyard, where Zhang Heng had scavenged all his parts at extremely low prices. Even so, it had taken him four months to assemble his current L300.
Zhang Heng was no longer the same as before. He finished delivering all the goods an hour early and drove back toward Takeda Fisheries, but from a street away, he saw billowing smoke.
Zhang Heng realized something had happened. He pulled over, called the fire department, then took the recurve bow he carried for protection from the back seat.
Before you continue