Zero To A Hundred With You

Chapter 9: The Rivals

Sugimoto locked eyes with the woman, glaring at her. Alice looked understandably confused, as both drivers seemed to know each other. Out of curiosity, Alice decided to ask Sugimoto.

"W-who is she Senpai?" Alice asked Sugimoto.

"She is one of my old friends from the academy days." Sugimoto told Alice.

"It's been years since I last heard of you, Asashi. It seems like you still have a passion for racing," The woman told him.

"You seem not half bad yourself Fujiwara." Sugimoto playfully said.

The two of them shared a laugh before shaking each other's hands. Alice, still surprised to meet Sugimoto's old friend, decides to ask her a question.

"Excuse me, madam, I hope you won't mind but can I ask for your name?" Alice asked her.

"Ah, I'm Kara Fujiwara, I'm one of the drivers for Nissan's Motorsport team!" She told Alice.

"Nice to meet you Fujiwara-san. I'm Alice Shah, a driver for Akinabalu Motorsports." Alice told her.

"Pfft, you're quite polite. Call me Kara instead! It's nice to meet you, Alice!" Kara responds to her.

Alice's eyes shine seeing her charm. Kara and Alice shook hands and smiled at each other.

"Say, what brings you all the way from England to Akinabalu?" Sugimoto asked curiously.

"Well, the headquarters at Yokohoma assigned me to race for them at the ROA Cup using the GTR Nismo GT3. I actually saw you guys running around in the garage area earlier, I wanted to greet you guys but I had to go for practice." Kara told them.

"So you'll be driving for them, huh? It's Just like old times." Sugimoto said and chuckled slightly. 

"Jeez don't remind me about the academy days. It was so stressful when they got angry over the slightest mistake. But I guess it did pay off after we finished it." Kara told them.

"So how many DNFs (Did Not Finish) did you manage to rack up in England?" Sugimoto said teasingly.

"Shut up Asashi, I've improved a lot since I moved to England. How else do you think I could drive for Nissan!" Kara said while pouting.

Alice listens to their conversation feeling a bit amused by their interactions. As they were talking, one of Kara's teammates called her over.

"That's my time to go, I can't wait to race you two again. See yah later!" Kara said and ran back to her pit.

As she left their pit to attend to her teammate, Alice noticed Sugimoto was staring at her and decided to tease him. 

"Is she your ex-girlfriend or something?" Alice asked him with a smirk on her face.

"Nah she already had someone when I met her." Sugimoto replied casually.

"Ah too bad, she seems like a fine girl. I still can't believe she drives for Nissan! It's quite a prestigious company after all." Alice told her.

Sugimoto looks at her who is still admiring Kara and decides to give her a head pat.

"I'm still your Senpai alright." He said while he chuckled.

"Oi who said you can touch my head!" She angrily pushes his hand away.

The members of the pit crew began fixing Sugimoto's car. As it was being fixed, Alice went onto the track and continued her practice session. The team monitors her lap time and tries to find any way to squeeze as much time as possible. Sugimoto was walking around the pitstop's garage and saw Ghazali staring at the monitor and comparing data from all her previous laps.