Chapter 14 - Haruka on the track
"Who is this girl?" Haruka had heard many racers whisper that to each other before the race started. Some men came to talk to her while she was giving the bike a final check. She had felt that the men weren't hostile. Curious, surprised, maybe a bit careful but they didn't mind having her in the race.
It had been years since other contestants had looked at her with compassion and curiosity. It was before she proved herself in the world she hadn't belonged to yet. Now she was on top of that world. And ready to conquer new ones.
"Hey, little lady. Where do you come from? You haven't raced here yet, have you?" one of the men had asked. Haruka quietly cursed the skin-tight racing suit that never hid anything. Being streamlined had its price. However, she even liked being herself in that world where she shouldn't have belonged to. Mainly because she had earned her spot in that world and was really proud of that.
"No… no I haven't," she had replied. "I'm today's black horse. And I'm not planning to be the very last one."
"Ever raced before?" another man had asked. They were really just curious. A girl or not, new racers were always something interesting. You'll never know how much they have in them.
"Several times," Haruka had nodded, tightening some bolts that seemed suspicious. The men that were all old racers noted the fact that she handled the bike like a professional. And Haruka knew that they had noted that.
"Well, it's always nice to see new faces," the first man had smiled. "Otherwise the races would be boring. Always the same winners and losers. Friends call me Jake." He had shaken Haruka's hand and so had the others. Haruka couldn't help smiling.
"Don't expect an easy race," she had warned the guys. "I like to give everything I've got when I'm on a new track."
And now she was on the track. Keeping the bike right behind the third favorite, staying in front of the rest, waiting for her turn. She could've taken the leading position in the start but that would've been too boring. These opponents came to fight. Each and every one of them.
The bikes roared loudly. Everyone but Haruka tried to give their best. The bumpy track didn't make it easy. Haruka noted that there were dozens of cameras attached to every possible pole and tree by the track. It was easy for the audience to watch the race from different angles, just like watching a TV.
The wind whizzed against her body. The bike purred like a tiger. Even though it wasn't hers, it wasn't planning to fail on her. Haruka considered herself a good racer when taking it very humbly but a good bike was still essential.
"Check it out, the new girl isn't bad at all!" one of the men yelled at the racer next to him.
"I'm not planning to get beaten by a girl," the other man hissed back and speeded up.
Haruka was completely in her element. Sure, there were more racers around her than she was used to but being an unknown racer gave her an advantage. Nobody paid attention to her. She wasn't considered a threat. Not yet. She put the bike on a little test, choosing a small lump on the road. The bike boosted in the air, gaining several feet with the leap and landed practically next to the third favorite. Haruka could see the man's surprised eyes behind the visor. Then she slowed down just a bit to take the fourth position again.
The bike was perfect. The racers were stunned. The newcomer seemed to be quite a bit more than they had expected. True, Haruka was a bit concerned about the fact that it was her very first time on that track but she hoped that there weren't any death traps ahead. She withdrew from the others for a bit to turn her communicator on and ask Michiru about it.
"Bulma says that there have never been any mysterious accidents on that track," her friend calmed her down in a moment. "There are plenty of new racers every Thursday and nobody has died yet. Just don't make any stupid mistakes, okay?"
Some youngster on a black dirt bike with flames painted on it had taken Haruka's fourth position as she ended the conversation and focused on the race again. The girl frowned but then she grinned. No more fourth position? Fine, then I'll take the third one.
The third favorite who had been trying hard the whole race to keep up with his two main rivals blinked and gasped as the slim girl on an old bike suddenly appeared right next to him, stayed there for a moment and then easily passed him.
"She's the third one! She's the third one!" Trunks and Goten both yelled as the screens showed what had happened.
"Only because she wants to," Vegeta remarked.
"There's a lot more to come," Michiru agreed. "This time the race is even interesting… because Haruka finds it interesting."
Haruka could hear the third favorite's bike right behind her as the man tried hard to win his position back. But the girl wasn't planning to let that happen. She was now the third. She looked aside for a second, trying to find a checkpoint. There it was, a sign with "5 MILES" written on it. That meant that there were 25 more miles to go. Haruka decided that there was plenty of time left and… slowed down a bit, letting the man behind her pass her again. As the bike slid by, Haruka saw the man's stunned eyes once more. He had understood that the girl had let him pass. Haruka grinned contentedly and even let the black dirt bike pass her, taking the fifth position.
The crowd was going wild. They had seen what the new racer had done and were now utterly excited. What else is gonna happen today? The commentator was about to lose his voice:
"Laaadies and gentlemen, today's newcomer just lost her third position, she's now the fifth… bike number 11 is leading, then there's bike number 25…"
Haruka didn't hear it and she didn't care either. She wanted to get out of the forest and make it to open fields again, just in case. Risking was nice but not when she actually took the race seriously. Her opponents weren't those hopeless men back in Japan who weren't fighting to win any more and practically let her win. This time it was a challenge and Michiru had been right, stupid mistakes were out of the question.
Luckily there wasn't much forest on the track. When half of the race was over, the bikes dashed out of the forest and raced over a huge field. That's where the same man that had promised not to let a girl beat him in the beginning of the race decided to act. He suddenly took up with Haruka and stayed there until the next bend. Just when Haruka was about to take the curve the other bike rammed hers, unexpectedly enough. The girl felt that she was flying through the air and on the next moment she hit the ground. The bike landed next to her, still purring and scraping the grass with its wheels.
"He did that on PURPOSE!" Goten was about to go mad. Trunks's eyes were gleaming with rage as well. The crowd was chattering excitedly, trying to figure out what exactly had happened. Michiru seemed a bit concerned as she clenched her fists and looked at the screen which now focused on Haruka. But then she smiled.
"She's fine; and not out of the question yet. Look." Haruka got up, lifted the bike up too and immediately followed the others that were already a mile away. The screen was now empty but the crowd's chattering got louder. There was a clear blood stain on the grass.
The girl was really fine, even though her arm was bleeding. But now she was angry. She wasn't going to let some fool get away with what had just happened. The bike neared the others so quickly that the crowd's chattering turned into cheering. Before the racers could understand anything, the bike whizzed past them. Past the black dirt bike. Past the third favorite… the second favorite! Haruka was now the runner-up.
The audience was excited. Everyone could see that the girl was a lot faster than the rest of the group and now that she was the second, everyone realized that she had simply been holding herself back and was doing that at the moment as well.
The wind whizzed against Haruka's body again. It hurt her arm but she didn't care. Her eyes registered the "20 MILES" sign and she dashed into the final round, taking her bike right next to the very first contestant.
The man who had been leading the race for the whole time and hadn't really cared about what was going on behind him almost fell off his bike in surprise when the girl on an old bike appeared by his side. Unlike Haruka, he had been racing with everything he got. Now he started feeling like it wasn't enough and he didn't like the feeling.
For a few miles they were racing side by side. The man got nervous. He tried to push Haruka off the road but the girl had experienced that often enough to avoid it easily. Haruka's eyes were calm and undisturbed as she pushed the bike only a little bit, just enough to bring half of her bike past the leader. She was now the first one. Once again.
The man hadn't given up yet. He had seen what Haruka had done in the beginning of the race and now tried the same. He chose a bump on the road and rode over it. The bike leaped in the air.
But it didn't win any distance. On the contrary, the man could barely keep the bike up as it landed and the second favorite almost passed him before he could gain complete control again. He struggled into the runner-up position and snorted with fury. Deep down inside him he knew that he was going to lose.
Haruka slowed her bike down a bit to stay next to the man.
"Not every bump is good for winning distance, you know!" she yelled to him over the loud roaring of thirty bikes. "The angle has to be perfect!"
The man snarled and squeezed the handlebar. "Get off my face, you… bitch!"
Haruka raised her brows. "Yeah? Okay, fine with me." The finish line was looming in the distance. The road wasn't that bumpy any more. Her eyes narrowed a bit and she gave the bike the very final command. And the bike didn't fail on her. It purred loudly, dashed forward, increased the distance between it and the racers and stayed in front of the group about fifty feet away. Just for teasing. Then Haruka decided that it was time to end this once and for all and speeded over the finish line.
The crowd went crazy. The commentator's voice was hard to hear even though he yelled right into the microphone: "We haaave the winner, ladies and gentlemen! Racer number 7, today's black horse, Haruka Tenou!"
By the time other contestants finished the race, Haruka was already surrounded by journalists, random excited people and medics that were checking her arm. The girl didn't answer to any of the journalists' questions. She was only talking to the medic that was dressing her wound.
"Merely a scratch, it will heal in a little while," the medic said. "How do you feel?"
"Just fine, now that you took care of it," Haruka smiled at her. The medic blushed a little and on that same second Michiru appeared next to her.
"That was once heck of a race, Haruka, and would you please leave that girl alone?" she snapped. The medic disappeared as quickly as she could. "Sheesh, by all means… how's that arm doing?"
"Nothing would've happened to it if the speed would've been smaller," Haruka replied. "Things like that just come about in a race. I guess I'm gonna have to deal with the journalists now, or what?"
"Just keep your eye on your big mouth, huh?" Michiru suggested. Haruka laughed and turned to the first interviewer. "Yeah?"
"How do you feel after winning such an important race?" the woman asked, feeling a bit upset since she had been trying to ask that for five minutes.
"As usually," Haruka replied rather laconically. Fame was something that just came along with her racing skills. She preferred to keep a low profile and never gave interviews. All those little questions after the race were fine but that was it. She never shared facts about her personal life. There were many things people didn't need to know about her.
"Have you won any races before?" another journalist quickly asked.
"Well…" Haruka didn't get that question often. "Yes, several. I have to get going now." Two or three questions were always the maximum any journalist would get to ask her after any race. The girl turned around, completely ignoring the rain of questions. She started the bike again, sighed slightly and turned around to get her prize.
"Hey, you, little lady!" a familiar voice called her. Haruka turned around to see the same men that had talked to her before the race. She smiled. Friendly faces were a rarity after winning a race.
"You're quite a lot more than we had expected!" one of the men announced, walking up to her and shaking her hand. "Congratulations."
"I don't hear the word often," the girl remarked. "It's nice to see someone that isn't jealous after losing to a girl."
"Winning, losing, who cares," another man said. "Everything may happen on a track. What that dude did to your arm was an ugly trick though." He glared at the racer that had rammed Haruka on the track. "He does that often, y'know, and usually gets away clean. He's good at such tricks. But this time he won't get away with it."
"Is lynch law common around here?" Michiru had shown up again. The men seemed a bit sheepish.
"As common as dirty tricks," one of the men replied. "Listen lady, you gotta go get your prize now. We'll take care of that dude, dontcha worry about it."
Haruka nodded. "Thanks. And… you guys raced pretty well yourselves."
The men grinned widely. "We're all newbies to the event so thanks. Go get your prize now… go on, people are getting impatient there!"
By the time they all left the track, Haruka was practically a local hero. Bulma was in an excellent mood. Her 200 dollars were fully paid.
"Your chances of winning were 50:1 and you won, Haruka, have you any idea how much I won with that?"
"About one tenth of the daily profit of your company?" Vegeta asked.
Bulma nodded frantically. "Almost, and that's a LOT of money! Tell me, Haruka, how come you're that good?"
The girl shrugged. "It's just the practice. Motocross is my hobby and people are always good at anything they like doing. Besides, today I was a black horse. They underestimated me and that's…"
"A terrible mistake," Michiru remarked. Haruka laughed.
"If you want to put it that way. Bulma, you can have your bike back now. It's a good one, I admit that but I still prefer my old Kawasaki."