The waiting room at Shibuya Central Hospital was heavy with silence, even in the dead of night. Only the second hand of the wall clock moved, ticking with mechanical regularity. The white glare of fluorescent lights illuminated the hard plastic benches. The smell of disinfectant stung his nose. Kenta just sat there, fists clenched on his knees. The cuffs of his school uniform were still caked with yesterday's dust. The bruises on his face throbbed. His left eyelid was still swollen. But none of that mattered. (*Takumi-san.*) A burning heat gathered behind his eyes. The same images replayed in his head, over and over. The wrecked Hachiroku. Takumi covered in blood. Ryou's thin smile vanishing into the darkness. He hadn't been able to stop any of it. Ikegaya Kouichirou rose from the bench, making it creak. His dark brown crew cut was disheveled. His usually bright, rounded black eyes were now dull and clouded over. The small scar on his right eyebrow stood out sharply under the fluorescent lights. Ikegaya walked toward the nurse's station. But he returned almost immediately, his footsteps slow and heavy. "...Still nothing." His voice was hoarse. Kenta couldn't say anything. He just clenched his fists even tighter on his knees. His knuckles turned white. The other two SpeedStars members stood motionless against the wall. No one spoke. Words were useless. That feeling filled every corner of the waiting room, leaving no space for anything else. The clock's hands passed two. Then three. Kenta desperately tried to recall the contents of the *Initial D* tankoubon volumes. But nothing came to mind. He'd read them a hundred times, yet now, the only thing burned into his brain was the image of Takumi bleeding. (*Knowledge... at a time like this, it's completely useless.*) He gritted his teeth. He could still taste iron in his mouth. --- Just before dawn. The sky outside the window was faintly beginning to lighten. A doctor emerged from the direction of the operating room. A man in his forties, his face utterly exhausted. He wore green surgical scrubs, a stethoscope hanging from his neck. Ikegaya shot to his feet. "[scared]Doctor, Takumi...!" The doctor paused for a moment, then spoke quietly. "...His life is not in danger." The moment those words fell into the waiting room, all the strength drained from Kenta's body. Like a thread had been cleanly cut. "Two fractured ribs, a contusion on his right arm, and bruising over his entire body. Full recovery will take two months. He'll need to be hospitalized for a while, but there's no need to worry about any lasting aftereffects." The doctor's matter-of-fact voice continued. "[gentle]Thank goodness...!" Ikegaya covered his face with his large hands. His shoulders trembled. Kenta looked down. A drop landed on the knee of his school uniform, leaving a dark stain. *Ah. I'm crying.* He realized it, but the tears wouldn't stop. Relief. But more than that, a different emotion churned up violently from deep in his chest. Full recovery in two months. Takumi wouldn't be able to grip a steering wheel for a long time. The Hachiroku was still wrecked. And Ryou had gotten away scot-free. (*I couldn't... do anything.*) His fists trembled. He clenched them on his knees so hard they made a grinding sound. Relief, rage, and a bottomless sense of powerlessness mixed together into a tangled mess inside his chest. "Visitation will be tomorrow or later. Please go home for today." At the doctor's words, Ikegaya gave a small nod. Kenta stood up. His legs nearly gave out. He put a hand on the wall, barely managing to support himself. Outside the window, the morning sun was slowly illuminating the ridgeline of Mount Akina. --- Late morning. The SpeedStars gathered in the backyard of Fujiwara Tofu Shop. Three kei trucks were parked at an angle on the gravel parking space. The sweet smell of soy milk drifted faintly from the shop's back door. Kenta sat down on a pile of old tires, near the spot where the Hachiroku was always parked. The bruises on his face were still swollen and purple. Ikegaya looked around at each member. He squeezed his large hands into fists, then slowly opened them. His usual cheerful expression was gone. "...Takumi can't drive for two months." His voice was quiet. "And the Hachiroku's in that state. We don't even know yet if it can be fixed." One of the members kicked at the ground. A pebble flew and hit a corrugated metal sheet. "[angry]You've gotta be kidding me, that Silvia bastard...! He rammed him on purpose, didn't he!?" "[angry]He completely ignored every unwritten rule of the touge...!" Angry voices flew back and forth. But they quickly died down. Everyone understood. Takumi wasn't here. The Hachiroku couldn't run. They had no idea what was backing Bloody Moon. And Ryou had declared—"I won't admit defeat." The voices faded, one by one. Ikegaya looked at each member's face in turn. His large hands trembled slightly. "[serious]...No one do anything reckless." That single sentence fell into the backyard. *No one do anything reckless.* In other words, it meant there was nothing else they *could* do. The weight of Ikegaya's voice only highlighted the severity of the situation. Silence. Only the wind rattled the tofu shop's old sign. --- What broke the silence was a cell phone ringtone. *Purururu.* Ikegaya pulled his flip phone from his hip pocket. The moment he looked at the screen, his face stiffened. "...It's a number I don't know." He opened the phone. His eyes scanned the message displayed on the screen. His expression froze over, right before their eyes. "[cold]Ikegaya-san...?" When Kenta called out to him, Ikegaya silently turned the phone's screen toward his friends. Kenta peered at the screen too. A short message was written there. *'I won't admit defeat. I don't give a damn about your rules. Next time, I'll destroy the entire Akina touge along with you. Look forward to it.'* There was no sender name. But they knew. It was Ryou. "[angry]...That son of a...!" One of them clenched his fist and started to yell. But his voice cut off midway. Words failed him. He just bit his lip and stared at the ground. *Destroy the entire Akina touge.* That was a declaration to wipe the street racers' sacred ground off the face of the earth. Destroying Takumi's Hachiroku wasn't enough. He intended to take this place itself, root and branch. A cold chill slithered down Kenta's spine. (*I'll never let that happen.*) He thought that in his head. But his body wouldn't move. He couldn't say anything. The cold text on the phone screen just kept spinning around and around in his mind. Even after reading the *Initial D* tankoubon a hundred times, nothing like this was ever written. No one who tried to erase the touge itself ever appeared. An unforeseen threat. It had now taken clear, tangible form, and stood blocking Kenta and the others' path. --- The SpeedStars members left, one by one. The sound of engines faded into the distance, and silence returned to the backyard. Only Kenta remained. He got up from the old tires and walked unsteadily around to the back of the tofu shop. There it was. The wrecked Hachiroku. The SpeedStars had hauled it up from the bottom of the cliff with a truck. The front end was completely crushed, the hood crumpled and bent. The driver's side window was shattered. The body, which should have been a panda two-tone of black and white, was now a mottled mess of mud, blood, and the silver gleam of bare, scraped metal—its original form unrecognizable. Kenta crouched down beside the Hachiroku. He touched its collapsed nose. The cold feel of iron. (*I couldn't... protect Takumi-san.*) He hadn't been able to stop Ryou. Back then, seeing this car run the touge, he'd wanted to drive too. That feeling had been real. And yet, when it came down to it, he hadn't been able to do a single thing. "...Uu..." A sound escaped him. "Uwa... aah..." Tears splattered onto the crumpled hood. "Takumi... san...!" He couldn't stop anymore. Alone in the backyard, Kenta cried out loud. Like a child, sobbing, he just kept crying. His throat constricted. His nose ran. Still, the tears wouldn't stop. (*I... couldn't do... anything...*) He grabbed the Hachiroku's broken hunk of metal with both hands. His fingertips were cold. It smelled of rusted iron. (*Couldn't protect him, couldn't protect him, couldn't protect him.*) The same words circled in his head. How long did he cry? His voice gave out, his tears dried up, and still Kenta sat there in front of the Hachiroku. Eventually, in a hoarse voice, he murmured quietly. "...I'll definitely protect it." The moment he put it into words, he felt something stir faintly deep in his chest. Resolve. But he had no idea how to make that resolve a reality. Right now, he had no power to grip a steering wheel, no power to fight Ryou. He had nothing. That was the hardest part. The sky was already completely bright. The ridgeline of Mount Akina shone golden in the morning sun. Normally, it was a view that would make him think, "Awesome." But today, it was just blinding. Beside the wrecked Hachiroku, Kenta sat hugging his knees. The wind blew, carrying a faint smell of oil through the gaps in the crushed hood. This was reality. Takumi was in the hospital, the Hachiroku couldn't run, and Ryou's threat to erase Akina was looming right in front of them. And Kenta had no power at all. Only the remains of the broken Hachiroku continued to silently speak that truth.