24 | One Step Away

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Yukari stretched her limbs as soon as she unmounted the van at Hakone's Finish Line for the first half. The trip took longer than expected and Kiyose needed to rest himself for the ride home, so they decided to head back after sunset.

Musa, who had brought his camera with him decided to take a bunch of pictures at the sight, some of them being the members and the actual scenery itself. Finally, he took a picture of the sun that had began to sink into the lake, What a sight.

"Beautiful. . ." Musa awed, amazed at the amazin scenery he witnessed at the moment. He was glad to capture this once in a lifetime moment.

"The air at the Aotake doesn't compare to this." Nico, beside Musa smiled.

"Isn't that mostly your fault?" Yuki questioned, raising his eyebrow at his statement.

"I wonder what it'll be like on the day of the race." Shindo asked King, sitting on a bench not far from the three.

"There will be screaming crowds, right?" King questioned.

"Guys!" Prince ran up to them, he took a few seconds to catch his breath as the other glanced at him curiously. "In the parking lot." He frowned.

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"You're so eager. You're even previewing the course!" Sakaki smirked. Joji, Jota, and Kiyose watched as he eyed Kakeru in front of him. "I'm sorry I called you plebs once."

"Should you be slacking off around here?" Kiyose questioned the redhead.

"I'm waiting for Group B to arrive, I'm in group A." Sakaki answered.

"He's a regular now?" Jota questioned his twin. "Guess so." Joji replied.

"Oh, yeah. That qualifier." Sakaki started, "It's amazing that you were neck and neck with Iwanki. I bet you could run the real thing right now!" He mused, directing his eyes towards Kakeru.

"That's... not true." Kakeru replied, unsure of how to reply to the redhead.

"So modest." Sakaki smirked.

"What are you guys doing?" The rest of the team, who were alerted by Prince gathered at the comotion.

"We were just talking about what I'd do if I were a Kansei runner." Sakaki shurgged. "I mean, no matter how much you practice, you only have ten runners. If even one of you caught a cold..." He swiped his hand across his neck with an evil grin.

"And even if you run like crazy and finish in the top ten... Your oldest runners are graduating, right?"

"There's no point in earning a seed for next year if you don't have enough runners. Don't you wonder what you're running for? It must be hard to stay motivated."

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