A Hybrid of Life and Gasoline | 命とガソリンのハイブリッド

Part 16 | Decision

At 2AM, Monday Morning. It started to rain pretty heavily while Mizuho was driving on the Tsuchiura New Way; An elevated road running from the west through the east of Tsuchiura. The road was created in preparation for Expo 85 in Tsukuba, built on top of the old Tsuchiura-Gakuen Drive. It's a road that Mizuho knew well, as he had been driving on it the entire time he's been living in Tsuchiura.

These days, however, the New Way was merely a sign of the better time in the past. The road was littered with weeds and was now pretty grungy from age. Tsuchiura was a major commercial hub for southern Ibaraki before the 80's, but after the economic crash, it never really recovered.

It's 2AM, and everything was completely quiet in this town. Inside the Probox, however, was a different story. The downpour kept hitting the roof which was made of carbon-fibre composite material and didn't have a headlining, thus every drop made a popping noise like when you put a plastic bucket to catch a tap leak. At least the roof was installed properly and the adhesive kept it from leaking.

Normally, driving on the New Way, Mizuho would be going way over the 50km/h speed limit, but due to the standing water on the elevated road way, he had to keep it to about that speed otherwise the A052 tires which were made for dry surface would aquaplane him into the barrier.

It might still look like a Probox, but the way it has changed over the years have made the characteristic of it not really suitable for most business use. Despite it still being driven on the same road, in the same town, by the same man, it's not really the same as a van that was built in Oyamazaki sometime in 2007.

The rains annoyed Mizuho quite a bit, not from all the drawbacks of his Probox, but he never really liked it when it rained. It made everything mucky when warm and absolutely unbearable when cold, but at least the winter's long over and there's no more snow for a few months to go, he hated the winter even more than the rain.

As Mizuho reached the end of the elevated New Way in front of Tsuchiura Station, the rain eased off. Lucky him, he thought as he turned right onto the Tsuchiura Port Line. Only a handful of other cars are still on the road as most people awaited for the new morning. Only the hum of the Probox's engine broke the silence of the night.

The Probox was still on JASMA certified exhaust, so the noise wasn't unbearable to Mizuho's neighbours, who he kept good relationship with all these years. Especially as he always let the car roll in first gear at idle speed through Takita. Only a few sleepless night owls would even hear it. Not once had he ever woke Ippei up, even pulling into the house.

The same old, square house, with a square car right out front on the driveway. The engine stopped and Mizuho got out of the Probox quietly. Same as with every Sunday which he decided was always to be a day off for him, with nearly no exception.

Unlocking the front door, which led him through the PC shop, in complete darkness the familiarity with the location let Mizuho walk through the tiny corridor that's left in the packed room, before going through the divider door into the living room.

It was still spotless as always. But Mizuho felt something a bit unusual. He couldn't really put finger on what exactly it was that was nagging his mind as soon as he got into the room. Oh well. Maybe it's the creep from the quietness. He thought nothing of it and prepared to go to bed.

At 6.30 AM, Ippei walked downstairs, same as he always did every weekday morning. Somehow this morning he woke up before the alarm went off, and felt great. He's not sleepy at all, which was very unusual, and yet, his father was there, sitting at the table, in front of the big television in the living room, watching the morning news.

"Good morning." Ippei said to his father with a hoarse, morning voice.

"Good morning to you too." Mizuho replied back, without even a sign he's sleepy.