Chapter Text
Friday 13th-Sunday 15th March 2015
At the bottom of the famous Pikes Peak, Nagisa was ready to go in the most brutal car available: the Audi Sport Quattro S1. The car had pressed a tongue-out groan of disgust from Rei, who chose the Ford RS200, which was far more beautiful in his eyes, and therefore had to be more efficient than “that unsightly brick on wheels”, as he put it. Their runs up the mountain, the 'Race to the Clouds', began. The styles were noticeably different: Nagisa was drifting joyously through the corners, making the tyres smoke on the tarmac and throwing up the stones once he reached the gravel section, while Rei took cleaner lines. For rallying through the sequence of hairpins, the latter technique was less efficient, and, add to that the superior grunt of the Audi, Nagisa was leading the way, when things suddenly turned to disaster for Rei, as he misjudged a corner in the third section. Unable to stop the car, he screamed with frustration as it skidded off the road, and brought his hands to his face in horror as he fell down the ravine!
Nagisa burst out laughing, commenting “you'll never make the checkpoint in time now, Rei-chan!” Rei respawned in the corner, got going, but sure enough, he ran out of time, and his game was over in that third sector. Nagisa, meanwhile, got to battle the fourth and final segment of the climb. The force feedback from the steering wheel on this arcade game wasn't as strong as in a real race car, but it allowed him to test his left arm. Another minute of concentration and he'd be done. Rei bobbed his head in approval as Nagisa crossed the finish line, setting a high score along the way.
“YAY! All-time third!”, Nagisa shouted, raising his arms. His celebration didn't last long though. “Hey, Rei-chan, I'm sure I can go faster, let's have another go!”
“Sure thing, Nagisa-kun”, Rei answered, bringing his hand to his glasses as he did so often. “I now have full knowledge of the course, I won't lose to the clock this time!” With that, another coin went in the machine, and the screens invited the pair to choose their weapon for another climb.
The next day, they met up with Makoto, Haru and Gou at Akihabara Station in Tokyo. After staying overnight at Rei's, Nagisa was reunited with his other friends for the first time since the New Year party. The end of the year of studies had kept them all busy, and it had gone mostly well for all of them except Nagisa, who was set to re-do his first year in medical sciences in Tottori. He figured he wanted to work with animals, so he aimed for a vet school. It was a bold ambition for someone who apprehended intense studying, but he had gone for the “deluxe option”, as he called it, first. Everyone was confident he'd succeed eventually, putting his difficultes down in large part to the effects of his injury in the Autumn.
“I'm sure you'll rebound, Nagisa-kun”, Gou said kindly.
“Yeah, you look really fired up! Put that into your work and you'll be unstoppable!”, Makoto encouraged. Indeed, Nagisa was beyond excited that day, and wasn't hiding it well at all. The next day, he was getting back in the race car, and he couldn't wait. They moved towards their train. Destination: the Tsukuba Circuit.
At the hotel a few miles away from the track, they met up with some senior staff of the Iwatobi Racing Team. Chrysler had only shipped over one motorhome, and mechanics had priority to sleep in it, because they'd have to set the pit garage up the next morning. Rei and Gou were happy to see that Jeremy Sharp had renewed as their crew chief. He had become a familiar face, and their working relationship had been great in 2014. The blond American in his early thirties explained the Sunday timetable to the five over dinner. It was going to be a packed day, with two four-hour sessions planned: 9 AM-1 PM and 3 PM-7 PM, allowing for some practice in the dark. Once they had finished eating, it was urgent for everyone to rest, as there would be a very early morning call to take the taxi to the circuit.
But Nagisa's excitement failed to die down, and it was so annoying that, at one point, Rei contemplated knocking on Gou's door to ask to use in the second bed in her room. Sleeping alone in the same room as a girl would have been a first for him, not to mention that there would be murder if Rin was in the same hotel and found out... The idea went as quickly as it came, and Rei was forced to put up with a very agitated Nagisa all night. For the second consecutive night.
The next morning, Nagisa had got out of bed like a shot when the alarm rang, and he had to pull the covers off Rei when he found him still lying down after he'd washed and changed. Rei plodded into the bathroom and gave himself a cold shower to wake up properly. When he came back out, he found Nagisa, dancing in front of the window to the music he had on his phone. Rei couldn't hold back his amazement. How did he do it? He seemed more energetic than ever despite two nights of restless anticipation.
Nagisa turned round, and didn't stop moving despite noticing that Rei was staring at him. He was absolutely unashamed.
“How long have you been watching me?”, he asked, removing one earbud and moving up to his blue-haired room-mate.
Rei blushed at the question, and stuttered, “erm, I wasn't watching per se...”
“Come on, how long?”, Nagisa reiterated, giving Rei a huge grin and a cheeky wink.
Rei coughed and just muttered, “well, I only got out of the bathroom just now.” Then he found a way out of his embarrassment. “What are you listening to?”
“Oh, it's called 'Walking on Sunshine'”, Nagisa answered. Rei let out a quick chuckle.
“Is that the super-cheesy song used in movies to tell the spectators a character is really happy? You don't really need that song right now, do you?”
“We're not in a movie, silly”, Nagisa scoffed back while picking up his pink and white jacket. “Last year, Fantasio said he listens to music he likes before a run. I'm just trying it out.”
“Well, it's kept your mood upbeat. I just hope it doesn't distract you.”
“I'll be fine”, Nagisa dismissed, putting the earbud back in and turning to leave the room for breakfast. Instantly after he passed by, Rei felt a slap hit his lower back. He straightened up and frowned. Definitely, it was lower than his lower back.
“Nagisa-kun, did you just do what I think you did?”, he asked, raising his voice a little while the door opened.
“Sorry, Rei-chan!”, Nagisa called back from the corridor. He probably hadn't heard Rei's complaint, but he guessed he'd be expected to apologise flatly for the tap...
“He's relentless”, Rei just thought to himself, smiling again. Even if it was tiring, he was touched to see Nagisa this excited again.
The team was at the circuit for 7 o'clock, when it opened, and all the workspaces, tools and, of course, the car, could be installed in the pit box. All four boys were due to run, even Rei, who, it was agreed, should be given some time as the squad's reserve driver, and they changed into their race suits together in a bedroom in the motorhome. It was a scene that amazingly hadn't happened the year before, and it immediately reminded Nagisa of the swimming club days. In fact, the boys had instinctively positioned themselves as they would have in front of the lockers – looking at their backs, from left to right: Haru, Makoto, Nagisa, Rei. The last young man noticed that something was different though.
“Damn, we don't have any towels to cover ourselves.” And changing into fireproof underwear was mandatory.
“Well, we can either promise each other we won't look”, Makoto laughed, “or get creative.” He grabbed his long-sleeved fireproof T-shirt, and tied it around his waist, before dropping his trousers. “This looks reasonable, right?”
Nagisa gasped and burst out laughing. Makoto felt offended. “What?! It works! You can't see anything!”, he shouted, looking around and under his T-shirt, expecting to find some sort of gap.
“No, Mako-chan, it's not that!”, Nagisa continued giggling. “It's Haru-chan! Have you seen what he's wearing?”
“Nagisa-kun, we just said no peeking!”, Rei protested.
“No, seriously, Rei-chan, it's ok to look”, Nagisa reprised. Rei overcame feeling shameful about looking anywhere to his left, and saw what his neighbour was getting at.
Haru was still capable of stripping faster than anyone else, and he was standing with his fireproof top in his hand, ready to follow Makoto's advice on privacy, wearing only... a swimsuit. “What?”, he said, most seriously.
Once they were ready, they walked to the garage, and found the car there. Nagisa was overjoyed. Cheering, he ran up to it, and leaned over the left-rear wheel area, as if he wanted to hug the vehicle.
“It's chassis number 7, brand new, and it's yours”, Jeremy announced.
“Nice”, Makoto responded.
“Any evolutions on it?”, asked Rei.
“Nothing really”, Jeremy answered. “The works team at Road Atlanta though, they're trying out new brake ducts. Brake cooling was a big issue at Le Mans last year, so it could be a major improvement.”
“Cool, when do we get it?”, Rei enquired.
Jeremy lifted his shoulders. Rei wasn't going to like the answer. “Le Mans, probably.”
Makoto looked over in surprise. “Not sooner?”
“Well, perhaps Laguna, if they validate it quickly”, Jeremy tried to reassure. That would still leave them running first two races of the year on the old system. “Thing is, brake wear doesn't come into play too much in the races outside Le Mans. We're still going to have to run practice with older pads. These ones are new though. Everything's new.”
Makoto then strayed away from the technical discussion to join Haru and Nagisa outside the garage. The three were looking up and down pit lane to see which teams would be out on track with them.
The Tsukuba Anime Test was one of three collective tests organised on the same day to give some pre-season running time to all teams, especially privateers who may not have the funding to test on their own. Later that day, other cars would be out to play at Monza, Italy, and at Road Atlanta in the USA, like Jeremy had mentioned. The Japanese venue was the short, technical Tsukuba Circuit, ideal for trying out a high-downforce configuration. It was a small track, but the turnout was also small, with just six teams present, running a total of eight cars. The richest manufacturer-backed Japanese teams were elsewhere, like Team Rocket who were taking part in the Monza session with their Alfa Romeo, or Team Kanto who tested secretly on their own at the Lausitzring in Germany. Their Digimon rivals, however, had opted to run at Tsukuba. Cadillacs made up half the field, with two Ciens for the reinforced works team (the second Digimon car would run a partial season), and a beginner squad, Racing Team TechnoVoyager, joining to run the American cars in both classes, and they were thus taking part in their first official test.
The rest of the meagre pack was made up of CT Newteam's Citroën GT (which ran branded as 'Olive & Tom Football Team' in French-speaking countries), the Iwatobi Chrysler, Samezuka's Mazda, and, much to Nagisa's delight, the Team7 McLaren, in the next pit stall. When Nagisa shouted “hey, Naruto-san!” and waved in the direction of the drivers of the #7 entry, Makoto told him to calm down. Still, Naruto managed a quick wave back before he became more engrossed with a discussion with his engineer.
“We should go over our running order”, Makoto continued, heading back into the garage. As often, he would be first out to perform the system checks. Rei would go second, while the pace was still moderate on a track that no-one had ever visited before, then Nagisa would get his turn before handing over to Haru. This first cycle would cover just under two hours, then the race trio would share the rest of the sessions, with Rei slotting in just one 40-minute stint in the afternoon. For the man set to return to his position as race engineer, it was about driving a little to stay sharp. After all, he was due to replace Haru at the third round of the series in June. With that verified, Haru, Makoto and Nagisa returned outside, strolling up and down the pit lane, soaking in the atmosphere.
The meet really was a small, informal, seemingly self-organised affair. There might not even be one AERS official for two teams on site, while there was always at least one standing in each garage to make sure the pit stops were legal at race weekends. They still gave out instructions: civilised driving on track, safe practices in the pit lane. Fines could be issued for clear malpractice, but there could be no sporting penalties.
There were also a few cameramen, some photographers and a couple of journalists. Most of them were over at Samezuka's garage, as the squad presented its evolved look for 2015. The car hadn't changed, but the three usual racers, Rin, Sosuke and Ai, plus reserve driver Momotaro, had new race suits, with more white on the upper half, featuring a shark fin design for their main swimwear sponsor along the legs, and their names written in large on the back. After a moment of posing, the media dispersed to capture the cars coming to life, and to witness the first steps of Team TechnoVoyager. With under a quarter of an hour to go, the Iwatobi boys caught a quick word with their Samezuka friends, as they had seen the commotion at their pit. Nagisa was excited by the new suits, and was roving around Ai to see every angle of his.
“You're rocking it, Ai-chan!”, he exclaimed. Ai was, as always, embarrassed at getting Nagisa's attention. “Aha, it says 'Nitro Nitori' on the back! Very clever!”, was the blond's next remark.
“Yeah, I came up with that”, Rin smiled.
“Unfortunately for the rest of us, that's about as good as Rin's jokes get”, Seijuro mentioned. Makoto was amused at both the play on Ai's name, and Seijuro's wit. Inside though, the Samezuka tactician was keeping to himself the thought that it would even be quite a good joke, if Nitori was actually fast.
The sight of the first cars being rolled out onto the apron was the signal for everyone to get to their action stations.
