The Ultimate Stride | Prince of Stride Fanfiction |

14 | Intercom Connections

    | {Kuga's P.O.V.} |

    "The wind is relentless today," I murmured to myself as I rested my hands on my knees, still trying to catch my breath from the sprints I had just pursued through the courtyard.

The day was slowly drifting into evening, and out of the corner of my silvery eyes, I could spot the sun dipping down into the city buildings through the large leafy branches of the oak trees scattered about the school grounds.

The arrangement of the bodacious green leaves casted random shadows over my body, causing my pale-white skin to appear as some sort of intricate puzzle.

    I'm the one who's puzzled right now.

For some unknown reason, I couldn't find the urge to go home just quite yet, so I found myself putting in even more training than usual.

    It was like someone in the back of my mind was nagging at me to push myself harder whenever I went to run, so I just kept on going despite the pain from exhaustion.

    I would've been annoyed by the relentless mental badgering any other time, but that day it felt oddly comforting to know at least something was cheering me on, even if it was only my mind playing tricks on me.

    It makes no sense. It's not like I'm actually training for anything, so why do I still put in the extra hours?

    Letting this question sink poorly into my mind, I took a deep breath and began to make my way over to the school lockers to grab my motorcycle helmet along with my jacket for the ride home.

As I walked, I unwillingly began to think more and more about Hônan's new Stride team.

    I was more tired than usual, so my mind was more prone to wandering off to random topics; and that day, my head was full of Stride.

    Hônan won their first match yesterday.

    Even though I knew I had no right to invest myself in their festivities, I couldn't help but search their racing results up online, and I was genuinely surprised by what I found.

    They had won by so much, I almost didn't believe the numbers I saw on the screen.

A ten second gap...

By Striding standards, a ten second win was considered phenomenal.

    I knew from past experience that Mihashi had problems with their relationing system because of some more personal issues, but that didn't change the fact that they were still a rather powerful team to surpass.

So, in result, Hônan's victory seemed even more extravagant in my eyes.

    "Heath must be happy with this year's new members," I noted quietly with the ghost of a smile playing on my lips as I punched in the simple number combination for my locker, removing it's contents shortly afterwards.

Unlike the previous year where Hônan Stride was pretty much nonexistent, the club now had enough members to participate in actual competitions, so it was inevitable that Heath's spirit would be properly rekindled.

He's happy again.

On my daily journey from the classroom to my motorcycle, I would always spot Heath, Hozumi, and their new members training on the track or in the nearby woods, and I could tell Heath was doing much better than the year before.