In the new garage, fourteen cars were lined up in a row along both sides.
The overhead lights were all on, and the white light fell on a row of car paint polished so brightly it could almost reflect a person's silhouette.
Red, black, silver, and a few cars with more flamboyant colors mixed together, making the originally quite spacious ground floor look quite crowded.
Satsuki had already changed out of the clothes she wore during dinner earlier.
An off-white thin knit sweater, with a short jacket layered over it, long pants on the lower half, and flats on her feet that were convenient for stepping on the pedals.
With her hands behind her back, she walked leisurely from one end of the garage to the other.
Diablo.
She paused for a moment.
Want to drive it.
Moving further forward.
959.
Also want to drive it.
The front of the NSX next to it glowed with a very clean red under the lights; just a moment ago, Father had sworn up and down that its seats were soft and would sink down after driving for a long time.
Satsuki stood there and looked for two seconds.
Should she verify it herself?
"Still haven't chosen yet?"
Shuichi's voice came from behind.
Satsuki turned her head.
Holding the keys to that 911, Shuichi was standing not far away, looking at her.
The silver-gray old Porsche had already been driven out from the position against the wall.
Placed alongside those new 1990s sports cars around it, it was visibly a size smaller.
Satsuki's gaze lingered on the 911 for a moment before quickly moving away.
"What's the rush?"
"I've already waited for you for ten minutes."
"Picking a car naturally has to be done slowly."
She said, turning around again.
Her gaze swept across the row of cars, finally stopping on that familiar splash of red deep inside.
The wide rear wing.
The exaggeratedly low body.
Even when placed next to those sports cars nearby, it was still ridiculously conspicuous.
Satsuki stared at it for a few seconds, finally stopping her hesitation.
"Forget it."
"It's still you."
She walked over quickly.
Shuichi stood behind, watching her pull open the door of the F40 directly, without a trace of surprise on his face.
"As expected."
One of Satsuki's feet had already stepped into the car, but upon hearing this, she withdrew a little.
"What do you mean by as expected?"
"Out of the fourteen cars, every time you pass by this one, you take a couple of extra glances."
Shuichi shook the keys in his hand.
"It's very easy to guess."
"..."
Satsuki looked down at the F40.
Was it that obvious?
She quickly tossed this question to the back of her mind, bent over, and sat into the driver's seat.
Although she hadn't had the chance to actually drive it for over a month, when she was in New York and California, whenever she occasionally thought of her garage full of new toys, she hadn't skimped on reading the materials sent by the manufacturer.
Satsuki adjusted the seat forward a bit, then extended her foot to step on the clutch.
The distance was just right.
"Milady."
A staff member walked over from the side and handed a walkie-talkie into the car.
"Please put this inside the car."
Satsuki glanced at it.
"Even this is necessary?"
"Department Head Dojima requested it."
"..."
She took the walkie-talkie and casually placed it on the passenger seat.
On the other side, Shuichi also got one.
Aside from that, no one else came over.
The security vehicles were even parked near the further exit, and only a few beams of headlights shone in from outside the half-open rolling shutter door.
Clearly, although someone was nervous as hell tonight, at least they still remembered they were out to have fun.
Satsuki nodded with satisfaction.
She reseated herself, fastened her seatbelt, and turned the key all the way.
The next second.
The V8 engine behind her suddenly came to life.
The entire cabin was instantly filled with a low and gritty mechanical roar.
Satsuki's hand gripping the steering wheel tightened subconsciously.
It was completely different from the sedan at home.
And completely different from the Mustang she drove in California.
The sound was too close.
Separated by a thin layer of car body, the vibration of the engine transmitted almost directly from the seat back onto her body.
She stepped on the accelerator twice.
The revs picked up.
An even more noticeable roar instantly resounded in the garage.
Shuichi happened to pass by.
His footsteps paused for a moment.
Then he looked over at her.
Through the car window, Satsuki blinked quite innocently.
"How is it?"
"Noisy."
"You're getting old."
"..."
Too lazy to bother with her, Shuichi turned around and got into his own 911.
Not long after, the silver-gray old car also started up.
Compared to the F40, its sound wasn't so exaggerated.
Much finer than the F40's roar, accompanied by the buzzing sound of the fan spinning, unhurried and leisurely.
Shuichi's silver-gray 911 was parked nearby, its body narrow, and its two round headlights were already on.
He had changed out of his kimono and was wearing a dark jacket, his right hand resting on the steering wheel and his left arm propped outside the car window.
"Before the turbo warms up, don't rush to floor it."
Satsuki turned her head, looking at him through two layers of glass.
"Father, why does that sound so practiced?"
Shuichi cleared his throat, shifting his gaze toward the rolling shutter door in front.
"Experience gained during the break-in period."
"Twenty minutes of experience, and you still have the nerve to teach me."
Satsuki let out a hum and released the handbrake.
At this moment, the sound of trotting footsteps came from outside the car window.
Chizuru ran over to the F40 bending over, and handed in a small dark blue cloth bag through the crack.
"Milady, toll money, there are coins inside."
Satsuki took it and casually stuffed it into her jacket pocket.
"Thanks, go back to sleep, you don't need to wait for us."
Chizuru lowered her head in acknowledgment, retreated to the wall, straightened her body, and neatly folded her hands in front of her.
The rolling shutter door rose all the way to the top.
The F40 slid out first, followed by the 911.
The guards at the main residence's entrance stood straight with their heads held very low, not a single person raising their head to look over here.
The several black sedans parked by the road waited for the two sports cars to pass before merging in one by one, trailing far behind.
This area was very quiet at night.
The sound of the F40 bounced back and forth between two rows of walls; Satsuki kept the revs low, shifted into second gear, and slowly turned onto Otowa-dori, without pressing deeply all the way.
The shops on both sides of Otowa-dori had pulled down their shutters long ago.
Kodansha's building still had lights on on a few floors, with people faintly hunched over desks behind the windows.
At the end of the road, Gokoku-ji's mountain gate stood darkly, the woods behind the gate blending together into an indistinguishable outline.
The toll booth at the entrance of Gokoku-ji was still lit.
She handed out the coins; the clerk inside the booth took the money and, while handing out the change, kept his eyes glued to the front of the F40.
The ramp was very short; Satsuki shifted into second gear at the end.
Pressing her right foot down, the turbo lag lasted only a split second, and then the pushing force from behind came fiercely and straight, pressing her entire body into the seat.
The road surface of Route 5 Ikebukuro Line unfolded forward in the headlights, and the guardrails formed gray lines on both sides.
In the rearview mirror, those two round lights shrank significantly all at once.
Satsuki smiled with her lips pursed.
She freed up her right hand, felt for the walkie-talkie on the passenger seat, and pressed the talk button with her thumb.
"Father, can you still keep up?"
The static crackled for a moment.
"I'm here."
The voice in the walkie-talkie was very steady, with the faint buzzing sound of the fan in the background continuing uninterrupted.
"There's a right turn ahead, the curve is narrower than it looks, lift off the throttle first."
Satsuki released the talk button and curled her lips slightly.
"It's not like it's my first time driving—"
Before she finished speaking, the guardrail ahead had already turned.
She slammed on the brakes with one foot, pressed the clutch all the way down with her left foot, shifted the gear lever back from third to second, and turned the steering wheel to the right.
The unassisted steering was so heavy it made her wrists ache; the front of the car grazed the inside of the curve as it pressed through, and when exiting the curve, she gave it another dab of throttle, causing the rear to sway gently.
She straightened the steering wheel and let out a breath.
That turn really was narrower than it looked.
In the rearview mirror, the two round lights had chased to within less than three car lengths from the rear.
A very soft chuckle came from the walkie-talkie.
"Exited the curve half a beat too early."
Satsuki pressed the talk button and lifted her chin.
"I just didn't push it! Next is a straightaway, you won't be able to catch up on a straightaway."
"Then you have to have a straightaway first."
As soon as those words fell, the road curved to the left again.
"Left turn, there's a joint at the exit, don't grip the steering wheel too tightly."
When the tires rolled over the joint, the car body indeed gave a slight hop.
Satsuki's hands loosened slightly on the steering wheel, preventing her from being shaken off course.
She was stunned for a moment.
How did he know this road so clearly?
Satsuki pressed the talk button again.
"Father, your navigation is way too accurate."
"Driven this road a few times at night."
"A few times?"
The walkie-talkie went silent for two seconds, leaving only static.
"Right turn ahead, the exit is very short, don't rush."
"Don't change the subject!"
Staring ahead, Satsuki wanted to retort with another sentence, but her hands and feet had already gone to handle that curve first.
Passing Takebashi, the road merged into the Inner Circular Route, and the buildings on both sides suddenly closed in.
The surface of the moat flashed past outside the tunnel entrance, followed by continuous curves and short tunnels.
The headlights illuminated the low tunnel ceiling, and the F40's roar was completely suppressed inside, making her eardrums swell from the vibration.
C1's road surface had large undulations and tight turns.
The F40's front end was heavy, and every turn required her to forcefully wrench the steering wheel, making her forearms ache in waves.
Before a left turn was even finished, two round lights flashed past in the right lane.
It was the 911.
That silver-gray small car cut past her right side, only starting to lift off the throttle at the exact spot where she braked, its body not shaking in the slightest, and in the blink of an eye, it darted right in front of her.
Satsuki's mouth was open.
The rearview mirror was empty.
In front of the windshield, two red tail lights lit up briefly in the curve and then went dim again.
The walkie-talkie sounded.
"The F40's front end is heavy, don't rush to accelerate when entering a turn; wait until the front is straightened out before stepping on it."
"You didn't even give a warning when overtaking!"
Pressing the talk button, Satsuki raised her voice.
"Didn't you always complain that my car was both loud and stiff? How do you have the face to overtake me?"
"It's your car that's loud, my car isn't loud."
"Ha, your old-timer."
Gritting her teeth, Satsuki pushed the gear lever into third gear and added a bit more throttle with her foot.
"For an old-timer to run this fast, did Father secretly swap the engine?"
"Of course not, this is original."
"Then the driver must have been swapped."
"The driver is also original."
Holding her breath without replying further, she single-mindedly clamped onto those two tail lights ahead, gradually clawing back the distance bit by bit through two consecutive curves.
Passing Kasumigaseki, the road emerged from between the gaps in the buildings, and the front suddenly lit up entirely.
Tokyo Tower stood right above the treetops of Shiba Park, only a few hundred meters away from the elevated highway.
The lights shot all the way up from the four tower bases, illuminating the steel frame grid by grid, shining all the way to the bottom of the main observation deck.
The F40 swept past the side of the tower, and Satsuki only had time to glance at it out of the corner of her eye before that expanse of light was flung into the rearview mirror.
Emerging from the tunnel, the overhead sign lit up with the characters "Haneda," and ahead was a fork in the road.
Satsuki released the talk button and pressed it again.
"Father, going straight returns to circling C1, and going down on the right is the Haneda Line. Which side are you taking?"
"You decide."
"Me?"
She gripped the steering wheel and glanced ahead.
The road on the left led to the densest city center lights, while the road on the right stretched toward the pitch-black sea surface.
"Depending on the mood."
She turned on her right turn signal.
"Then it depends on your mood."
The 911 followed closely, the two cars one after the other turning into the Haneda Line.
This road was much wider and much straighter.
On the left hand side was the night of Tokyo Bay, where the cranes of the container terminal hung orange-red lights, passing backward one after another outside the window.
Satsuki targeted a long straight stretch ahead, shifted into fourth gear, and floored the accelerator.
The hiss of the turbo suddenly spiked behind her, the tachometer needle lunged toward the redline, and the reflective strips on the guardrail merged into a white line.
In the rearview mirror, those two round lights shrank into two spots of light, retreating bit by bit, and were finally swallowed up by an undulation in the road surface.
She lifted off the accelerator.
The revs dropped, and the roar inside the car lowered a notch along with it.
Static sounded in the walkie-talkie.
"Why did you lift off?"
"Who lifted off, I'm looking at the scenery."
Satsuki held the steering wheel, her eyes fixed on the rearview mirror.
"The container terminal on the left is very pretty."
"No need to wait for me, I can keep up."
"Who's waiting for you."
As she spoke, to prove that she was really looking at the scenery, Satsuki cast her gaze outside the window.
Beside the elevated highway, a monorail train was heading toward Haneda, its compartments brightly lit, sparsely seated with a few office workers carrying briefcases.
After the F40's speed came down, it traveled roughly side-by-side with the train.
A man by the window raised his head, looked over here through the glass for several seconds, and the newspaper in his hand slowly lowered.
Well, office workers getting off the night shift could also be considered a kind of scenery.
Satsuki withdrew her gaze, her right foot still lifted, letting the speed stay put, watching those two spots of light slowly enlarge from a distance, turning into lights, turning into a car, and finally steadily hanging back behind the rear of her car.
Only then did she step on the accelerator again.
In the rearview mirror, far behind the 911, a few pairs of black sedan headlights were still trailing, always maintaining a distance and never approaching.
Not far away, a passenger plane was lowering its landing gear, its lights flashing as it slowly descended toward the sea surface.
The sign for the Haneda exit swept past overhead.
"Father, further ahead is the Yokohane Line."
"Mm."
"Still going forward?"
"You decide."
"Then let's continue."
Satsuki pushed the car window crack a bit wider, and the wind poured in more fiercely, blowing the wisps of hair in front of her forehead flying backward.