The F-1 Grand Prix is about to start, the smell of hot engine oil and the charmingly unrealistic sound of an armada of engines roaring to life blasting my senses.

I gun the acceleration without releasing the brake in anticipation of the green light.

Pit Boss Kagami's face shows up on the screen of the small monitor above the dashboard. "Good luck out there. You know where to find us if you lose a tire or something." She says, then she gives me a stern look. "But shouldn't you be doing your homework right now?"

"This old girl and I have one last race left in us before the season ends, and we're gonna make it count."

Sound off on three.

1...I turn off the monitor and give the engine another kick...2...I slap my white helmet with a Hatsune Miku design motif for good luck...3...

I lay off the brakes and hit the track at full throttle, The Silver Vocaloid's tires shrieking as I accelerate from 0 to 120 within mere seconds, the sharply increased gravitational force slamming into me like the unyielding fist of an offended Yandere. But for Voca the transition is as smooth as the stroke of a Zebra pen on Vellum bristol, and I can't help but crack a smile as I obtain an early lead. That a girl.

As I approach the first turn of the track, I spot another car coming up on my tail fast in the rear-view window.

Kagami's face reappears on the screen. "That car with the Doraemon stickers is getting kind of close. Look out, I think they're trying to ram you!" She says, but her warning comes too late.

The Doraemobile knocks into my side, pinning me between it and the wall. But even in the chaos of flying sparks and Kagami screaming at me to do something, I try to maintain my calm and figure out a solution. Err, well actually I just sort of go with the first thing that came to my mind because hey, it's not like I had time to think while a brutal blue behemoth was bearing down on me while my car was going over a hundred miles an hour and being ripped to shreds!

"Here goes nothing."

I put the pedal to the metal while rocking the steering wheel back and forth until I am able to wriggle loose, still maintaining my spot in the lead.

"How was that Kagami?" I say, but upon looking at the screen realize that she had disconnected. That figures.

But now really wasn't the time to relax, as the other racers had gained on me, and I swear by my collection of Fist of the North Star manga the closer they got, the more everything seemed to slow down. It's as if my car, the pixellated figures of people cheering in the stands, and my own movements were now delayed all of a sudden.

I fiddle with the buttons on the screen, trying to regain contact with Kagami. "Anything going on at your end? Hey, are you there?"

Instead of her face popping up, though, it is a man's.

"Looks like you're driving in slow motion." He says, eyes half-closed and stroking his chin.

"Dad?"

...

I set the controller down and look over my shoulder to see my dad standing there. Turns out he had been watching her play for the past twenty minutes without me noticing. Did I just completely blank out or something?

"You know, it used to drive me crazy when it would slow down like that, right when I was about to win." He says then walks over to the cabinet full of games and starts digging around in it. "And if you're going to play some of my old games, I might as well show you the good ones."

With an aha he reveals the cartridge of Donald Duck Mahou no Boushi wearing that big goofy smile of his.Little did he knows this was just like a scene from an Anime where a girl's parent does something totally embarrassing without knowing it. Seriously, out of all those games he had to pick that one?

And Kagami's going to be so mad at me tomorrow for leaving her hanging.