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

Part 26 | Wasted Potential

Last night, there was quite a euphoria when the news hit that 'TowaWaki39' did a 2:16.83 on one of his runs.

Finally, after however long the Geo Timer app had been running, the top time of 'Urasawa' was beaten.

Although, if anything, for many people witnessing the moment, the time itself was meaningless. It was the thought that what was considered an impossible feat, was indeed, possible to beat that mattered.

Towa felt great as well, obviously, even if he's being reserved about it. It was the last run he was prepared to do before he went home.

What was on Towa's mind the most last night, was the mysterious silver Honda S2000 that he occasionally saw running as well. Somehow, none of the people there other than him seem to notice the guy.

It was only after Towa got home and checked the leaderboard again that he noticed a mysterious time on the board from the person that he couldn't find in the Discord group.

There were actually 2 names that stuck out as not being in the group, one of them was 'TaTa', which Towa knew had been on the board since he started using the application. The other though, was a newly created account that he had not seen before.

'Inazuma', with the time of 2:18.16. He was in third place.

Yes, the euphoria around Towa's time meant not many people actually cared much for the 3rd place runner, but a few people did ask who this 'Inazuma' person was, and already asked in the group to see if they were in the group, but they were not. A few people discussed about the S2000, but none of them actually said anything other than it could be the 'Inazuma', or not, nobody knew.

One thing was for sure though, this guy was aiming for 'Urasawa''s time as well.

Although, with Towa now being first, he couldn't help but feel that 'Inazuma' was really now aiming for him more than 'Urasawa'.

—

Tuesday, Mizuho got up at around 5 AM, as it was pretty usual for him. When he woke up he saw the notification on his own application.

'1 person beat your record. You are now 2nd on the leaderboard.'

That really woke him up.

Someone had finally beaten his time.

Mizuho quickly checked the name of the leaderboard to see if his first guess was right, and indeed it was, Towa Wakisaka was the first person ever to beat his time that he set as a benchmark years ago.

It made Mizuho really happy. He was almost skipping around with excitement from seeing that.

Mizuho got downstairs, did his morning routine, and sat at the small table behind the television to watch a morning program. NHK News Ohayo Nippon as it's his preferred option. At the same time, Mizuho had his laptop on the desk and was doing shop accounting at the same time. The income had not been great, but expenses were low as well.

At around 6.30AM, Ippei walked downstairs and saw Mizuho was still sitting there, laptop in front of him, but he's watching the TV.

"Good morning." Ippei said, his voice hoarse and there's a lack of energy.

"Good morning." Mizuho replied.

Ippei then disappeared into the bathroom and was in there for just about normal amount of time, before he stepped out and went into the kitchen again for a pretty normal amount. Mizuho kept watching TV all the while not paying attention to him.

Ippei came back with a ham sandwich, a feeble looking one that Mizuho thought looked a bit sad.

"Aren't you cooking today?" Mizuho asked, which made Ippei look up with the sandwich still in his mouth. He chewed before he answered.