A Little Too Slow

For a runner, being a little too slow was the difference between first and second place.

People cheered for the champion. The runner-up got nothing but encouragement: "You did really well."

A-Train heard his brother's words. He knew what was happening to him.

He wasn't as fast as he used to be.

And he knew why. He had used Compound V too many times.

The stuff boosted his powers, but its side effects were severe. Besides straining his heart, one effect had become impossible to ignore.

His extraordinary running speed had slowed.

In the end, using Compound V to get results was nothing but a shortcut that would hurt him later.

But A-Train had to use it. He looked at his own brother, then at Ryan, who was counting ants beside the track.

The pressure weighed on him. He was a member of The Seven. He worked high above everyone else in the Seven Tower.

If he lost the race, he would come crashing down.

As one of The Seven, admired and revered by so many, A-Train believed he had to be number one.

Otherwise, no one would love him.

The Female would leave him. Ryan would stop coming to talk to him. Even his brother would be disappointed.

"What would be the point of living then?"

He murmured the words to himself, took off his goggles, and left the track.

His brother, who looked much like him, caught hold of him.

"Where are you going? You were slow this time. Run faster next time."

"You still want me to run?"

"Yes, A-Train. Isn't that what we've always done? Rain or shine, we keep running on the track until we break the limits of speed."

"Will breaking that limit let me beat Shockwave? It won't, will it?"

A-Train shook his head. His brother's spirits sank too.

Shockwave's abilities really had surpassed A-Train's.

Those 0.3 seconds by which Shockwave was faster were a gap that seemed impossible to close.

A-Train had poured countless hours of effort and sweat into reaching his current speed.

Then Shockwave had appeared out of nowhere. His overwhelming ability had hit A-Train like a slap in the face, leaving him doubting himself.

Had all my effort been worth it?

Maybe it hadn't. That was why A-Train now intended to use Compound V to race him.

He didn't tell his brother any of this. He just looked at the hope in his brother's eyes.

A-Train sighed. Some things he had to bear alone.

At the edge of the track, Ryan watched ants move across the ground like tiny black dots. Near a patch of soil, they had found an earthworm that had surfaced for air.

The black earthworm writhed helplessly as ants crawled over it and tore into it.

The ants kept injecting formic acid into its body. At last, its struggles grew weaker and weaker.

At this rate, the earthworm would be torn apart and eaten.

Ryan had no intention of interfering. One life ended so that others could go on living.

A lot of things worked that way.

After a while, he lost interest and turned toward A-Train.

A-Train seemed to be arguing with his brother.

They were loud enough for Ryan to hear every word.

It was A-Train's brother who was shouting.

"You've changed! You're not the A-Train who used to push himself on the track. Has the luxurious life of The Seven made you arrogant?"

A-Train was so composed he barely seemed willing to argue.

"Everyone changes. When people meet again, neither of them is the person they were before. I'm not wasting any more time here."

"If you won't train here, how are you going to beat Shockwave?"

"The question is, how is Shockwave going to beat me?"

A-Train smiled mysteriously but said no more. He had complete faith in Compound V.

He would show Shockwave that no matter how hard he pumped his legs, he couldn't compete with a single dose of A-Train's drug.

Listening to them, Ryan had a fair idea what A-Train was thinking.

The guy was getting used to the convenience of Compound V. He wanted to be an addict on the track.

He was already showing signs of becoming unable to do without it.

If this went on, one dose of Compound V would stop being enough. He would take two at a time, then three, then four.

He would keep demanding more until the side effects of Compound V killed him mid-race.

He might even collapse halfway down the track.

Ryan meant well. Thinking of all that, he decided to offer some advice.

He walked over to A-Train.

"Even if you use that stuff, it won't be a clean win."

"But I'll have a clear conscience."

A-Train looked so righteous that Ryan didn't know what to say.

There's no helping him.

His brother still thought A-Train could be helped. Beneath the soft sunlight,

he urged A-Train again and again to try running a few more times. All he got were cold refusals.

His heart sank further. He looked at the brother who had become a stranger to him.

He was starting to lose faith in A-Train. If A-Train wouldn't even try, if he was just going to give up, how could he possibly outrun Shockwave?

If A-Train lost to Shockwave, the fans who had once adored him would turn on him.

Words came easily. As A-Train's brother, he had met plenty of famous people through him.

And he had noticed something striking.

When someone rose to fame, people put them on a pedestal and refused to hear a bad word about them.

When they fell, everyone rushed to kick them. The voices that had praised them were drowned out by insults.

They made it sound as though the person's very existence was a mistake.

As A-Train's brother, he didn't want A-Train condemned by baseless accusations.

That was why he kept urging him to run. A-Train couldn't lose. He simply couldn't.

The more he thought about it, the more determined he became to persuade A-Train to focus on training.

Then he brought his attention back to the present.

"Where'd they go?"

The track was empty. A-Train and the boy had vanished.

While he had been lost in thought, A-Train and Ryan had left.

An ordinary person couldn't stop a speedster like A-Train from leaving. They could barely see him move.

Meanwhile, A-Train ran at his usual speed.

The scenery streamed past him. He passed crowds and roads.

All he left behind was a gust of wind that lifted skirts. No one noticed him go by.

Ryan traveled alongside him.

He flew overhead, moving even faster. A-Train stopped before a railway track.

Ryan landed too.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm taking you to see where you can get Compound V. After this, you can pick it up yourself."

Despite what A-Train said, Ryan looked around.

All he saw were iron-colored rails and stones scattered unevenly between them. The stones had absorbed the sun's warmth.

They gleamed in its light.

In the distance, a train whistle sounded.