Chapter 2: Meeting Michiru
The next morning, Haruka walked into the garage of the race track, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Apparently, having lots of technology in your body didn't really protect you from being tired when you didn't sleep enough. "Hey, Haruka!" her boss, a kind and warm-hearted man named Masanori Ogawa called out to her. "Why the tired face?" he asked while walking over to his favourite race car driver, wiping oil off his hands with a dirty old rag. "Just didn't get enough sleep." Haruka replied before she let out another yawn, opening her mouth so wide that Masanori feared she could tear the muscles of her jaw in two. "Oh. Can you drive?" he now asked, concerned. Haruka stifled a sigh – ever since her accident, Masanori was over-protective when it came to her – and replied: "You know me. I'm always…ready…for…" the blonde trailed off, and her eyes widened. Surprised, Masanori turned around, and when he saw what – or, better said, who – caused Harukas odd behaviour, he grinned. "Who's that?" Haruka finally managed to ask, after picking up her jaw, while her eyes practically were glued to the young aqua haired girl that walked towards the garage gate. "Michiru Kaioh. She's a trainee at Tokyo Sport Magazine and probably wants to interview you." "Thank you, Lord!" Haruka whispered, while Masanori chuckled and shook his head. "Love-struck teenagers." He then teased, while Haruka glared at him. "I'm not a teenager! I'm twenty-two!" she cried out, but before she could threaten Masanori with terrible beating – all in good fun, of course – Michiru reached the two and interrupted the two: "Good morning, Mr Ogawa and Mr Tenoh." Both Haruka and Masanori let out a small cough before they both turned to face Michiru, straightening up, Haruka's chest swelling since she just had been called Mr. "Good morning, Ms Kaioh!" they spoke unison before looking at each other, feeling like two students who greeted their teacher in the morning. After a moment of silence, Masanori scratched the back of his head and pointed at the next car. "I'll leave you two now, so you do your interview, Ms Kaioh." Michiru smiled at him and nodded, and he walked away, while Haruka motioned towards the race track's lounge. "Shall we sit in there, Ms Kaioh?" Michiru nodded and smiled up at the taller Haruka. "Oh, and please call me Michiru. I'm too young for the Ms Kaioh thing." The aqua haired girl then spoke while the two walked over to the lounge. Haruka smiled down at her and replied: "Only if you call me Haruka." Michirus smile brightened, and she nodded. "Gladly." The two women reached the lounge and sat down, Haruka coughing to drown out the chrrrk noise her knee produced again. "Call Terminator Inc. and tell them about your knee." The blonde made a mental note to herself before putting on her most charming smile and looking at Michiru. "So, you're from Tokyo Sport Magazine and want an interview with me, right?" she asked, her eyes nearly falling out when Michiru blushed heavily and shook her head. "Actually, no. I mean, yes, um, no…umm…" Haruka couldn't help herself, but had to grin at the aqua haired girls behaviour. Michiru let out a sigh and finally confessed: "My father is working for that magazine, but I don't. I just needed a good reason to…meet you." At the last two words, the aqua haired girl nearly turned purple. Haruka gave her another charming smile and spoke: "Well…I'm honoured. But…you do know that I'm female, right?" "Of course!" Michiru replied, nodding her head so frantically that her hair flew around her head like crazy. "I just called you Mr Tenoh because I once read that you like that." Haruka chuckled and nodded. "Seems like you know everything about me." She then spoke. Except for the fact that I'm the 20th Century version of a Cyborg. "I'm your biggest fan." Michiru now added, her face slowly returning to it's normal colour. She started to dig through her pockets until she pulled out a picture she had cut out from a youth magazine that had once announced that Haruka Tenoh was the hottest racer ever, printing the blondes grinning face to prove that, holding it out to the blonde. "Could I get your autograph?" she shyly asked. Haruka smiled and took the picture from the nervous girls hands. "Of course." She scribbled her name on the picture, then turned it around and wrote something on the back of it Michiru couldn't see. "There ya go." The blonde then spoke, giving the now signed picture back to it's owner. "Thanks!" Michiru cried out, quickly putting the photo back to where she had pulled it out from. "I hope you're not mad at me." She then added, turning into the shy girl all of a sudden again. "Mad? Why should I be mad?" Haruka asked, surprise in her voice. "Because I lied to your boss and said that I wanna do an interview with you." The aqua haired girl replied, blushing heavily again. "Nah, I'm not mad." Haruka calmed the young girl down, smiling at her. "Actually, slowly I'm getting sick of all that interviews. I mean, I had to give a lot of them before, but ever since the…accident…it became even worse. And it was the only way for you to get in." she added after a few moments of thinking. "Security is tight since my crash." Michiru nodded, knowing what the police had found out: that somebody had been tampering with the brakes of Haruka's car before the race had started. Only bad thing was that they had no clue whom it could have been. "Anyway", the aqua haired girl now spoke, "I gotta go now. It was very nice to meet you, Haruka." "Same here." Haruka replied, smiling and standing up, a soft chrrrk sound echoing through the room. "Did you hear that?" Michiru asked, frowning and looking around. Haruka's eyes went O_O, but she quickly regained her cool composure and replied: "No, hear what?" "Some odd noise…oh, never mind. Once more, it was nice to meet you…and thanks for the autograph." Michiru smiled at the blonde, then left while Haruka let out a sigh and stared at her knee in anger. "Stupid thing." She muttered to herself, kicking the couch she had been sitting on. Unfortunately, the blonde had forgotten about the fact that the muscles of her legs now were technologic, and thus much stronger. Her foot sunk into the upholstery of the couch, and Harukas eyes widened. She quickly pulled it back out, coughed and then left the room as if nothing had happened.
Michiru walked away from the race track, grinning from ear to ear while she awed at the autograph Haruka had given her. Then, the aqua haired girl remembered that the blonde racer had written something on the back of the picture, and she turned it to look. "4278528364. Call me. Haruka." Michirus eyes nearly fell out, and she happily sighed before hugging the picture. "I will!" she then cried out, causing all the other people on the street to give her odd looks. "Yes, I will!" with that, she walked on, humming a happy tune all the way home.