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Ace Ukiyo had always been so strange, in Neon’s eyes, at least. Or perhaps not always, she’d been amazed and enamored by him, at first, like so many others were. The “star of the stars of the stars”, as he was called, someone who everyone was amazed by, who was adored. His fame and status were far higher than her own – famous just for being so famous. Certainly, he seemed to have a way with people – and with getting them to do what he wanted, as she’d learned, a sort of charm that must have aided him not just with life itself, but with his victories in the Desire Grand Prix.
Trying to understand Ace was like trying to understand advanced quantum physics. A headache in and a half, even if you had someone to try to explain it to you. He’d outright lie about things, things that didn’t always even make sense to lie about, just to spin things to his own benefit. His wish, how long he’d been participating in the Desire Grand Prix, all his answers had been lies or refusals.
Yet he wasn’t all lies and tricks – at least, it didn’t feel like he was. She was certain he’d been truthful at least a few times. Maybe that was why she didn’t hesitate to trust, to some extent, his words. Not all of them, but some of them. Or maybe it was because she hadn’t been burned by his words, not like Keiwa had been, nor did she have the same malice towards him that Azuma did.
Neon couldn’t explain why, but she’d found she had this strange… interest in Ace. She wasn’t quite sure what it was, it was new, so it was strange, but not entirely unpleasant. As a matter of fact, it was the opposite of unpleasant, she quite enjoyed the interest, the curious sensation in her chest when Ace finally revealed some new nugget about himself, true or false.
Maybe it was simply that she wanted to unravel the mystery that was Ace, but she didn’t think that was it. This was different than that. Even if she wasn’t entirely sure in what way, she just knew it was. Furthermore, she didn’t feel a particular need to dissect just what this feeling was, not at the moment at least.
There were bigger mysteries afoot, anyway. Like how she’d been brought back into the Desire Grand Prix, something her father surely had some connection to, or how the Jamatos were becoming stronger. Keiwa’s return too, though she much preferred it over seeing how lost he seemed without the desire to his wish. Though if he didn’t win, he’d return back to that, wouldn’t he? And if she didn’t, she’d return back to how she was before, forgetting all about NeonTV and her aspirations to get away from her home.
Not that Neon was going to lose again, she was going to get her true love, she was determined. Keiwa’s wish to bring back those who died playing the Desire Grand Prix was noble and all, and she really thought it was a wonderful wish but… they were all in it for themselves, at the end of the day.
Even if Ace’s wishes turned out to be baffling, she supposed it wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t wish for the one thing that seemed to be his true desire. Maybe he wasn’t telling the truth about his mother, but somehow, she didn’t think that was the case. She really thought that he was being honest – though maybe she was just being fooled again.
And for all that Ace was infuriating at times, for all he lied and tricked and did what he felt he had to in order to win, Neon didn’t think he was a bad person. His kindness was visible, in some cases. Sure, it was hidden under layers and layers of deception and only revealed itself in certain, brief moments, but she knew exactly what she believed. Ace was, deep down at least, a good person – not any worse than the rest of them, at least.
Despite that all, Neon couldn’t explain the strange feeling that came to her chest whenever she was around Ace. It wasn’t always there, wasn’t there when her first Desire Grand Prix began. It only came about more recently, maybe some time towards the end of the last Desire Grand Prix, or at the beginning of this one. It made her chest tight and fluttery, almost like an anxiety.
Yet it very much wasn’t anxiety, it was surely something else. It didn’t always appear, really the only times it did were those brief moments when Ace showed his kindness. Then she was overcome with this feeling, not bad, just new and confusion and she had to hide it, if only because she didn’t know what it meant.
Maybe that version of Ace she saw, those parts that seemed to have such kindness, maybe it wasn’t true. Maybe he was only like that as an act, as a way to convince everyone that he could be kind – and sometimes, that was certainly true. Sometimes his kindness benefitted him more than anyone else. But there were other times when his kindness gave him no boons – nothing to gain and he certainly knew that, but he still chose to show that kindness.
That wasn’t the only part of Ace that Neon liked, though. He was cunning, and she’d been on the giving side of that cunning when they’d been paired together. Even when she’d been on the receiving end, though never so badly as some, she couldn’t find herself to be upset with him. She admired it, and the skill that came with it. It was easy to see why Ace had succeeded in winning so many Desire Grand Prix – she may not know exactly how many, but she knew it was more than a few, clearly.
Though they would never be allies for long, though they’d always be opponents at the end of the day, Neon liked Ace. She liked him for all that he was, even when those parts of him didn’t benefit her. Just because they both wanted to win didn’t mean they couldn’t be friends.
Somehow, though, friends alone didn’t feel like quite the right word. That was probably the best descriptor as to what they were, but somehow, it felt like that wasn’t quite enough. Neon just didn’t understand what more they could be.
Besides, she was going to win, and she was going to get her wish – what were the odds she’d see much of Ace, after that?