OK Number 21 - Look But Never Stare
Much had been made of why both Kōzuki's enjoyed far more organic support in their home country than Suzaku ever had. In spite of the two title contenders both being Japanese, the home crowd at Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix was definitively one sided, with sporadic chants of 'Oshiyoseru Kōzuki', as well as the popularised Japanese flag with the kanji spelling out Kallen's name in the four corners filling up the grandstands.
Some hypothesised that it was a function of the Kōzuki's both driving for a Japanese team while Suzaku drove in a British outfit, however this failed to account for the muted response Kyoshiro Tohdoh, who also drove for Rebellion, received. Others posited it as a question of background. Suzaku had lived out most of his childhood and early adulthood in France, away from Japan, while the Kōzuki's had lived in the inner city of Shinjuku for years, never moving away from their familial home in spite of their emancipation from their now divorced parents. This hypothesis contested that the Japanese crowds saw the redheads as being more a part of Japanese life and society than the 'foreign' Suzaku.
The third hypothesis was based on class. While some amount of wealth and support is needed to enter motorsport in any serious capacity, Suzaku was, at least financially, never left wanting, which did, rightly or wrongly, remove a significant amount of the sympathy afforded to the Kōzuki's, who worked odd jobs up to when Naoto got a seat in Formula 2, and acquired a personal sponsor in the energy industry to finance the siblings. This supposedly made the crowd identify with them more than they did the son of a wealthy ambassador.
Whatever the case, it was undeniable, Naoto noted as he sat in the secluded stand he had been afforded above the pit lane, that Kallen-mania had reached fever pitch in Japan. Like Nigel Mansell in the United Kingdom, there was a manic buzz about the country in the week leading up the 2019 Grand Prix, as if a competitive Kallen had taken the place and given it a fierce shake. The grandstands were as full as Naoto had ever seen them, and certainly as loud.
However, in the isolated guest suite overlooking the track, conditions were much less intense, with the elevated balcony removed from the sweat and emotionality of the packed paddock but providing some ability to breathe and move about, which for Naoto's charge was an issue of significant importance.
"Look over here Naoto, you can see the whole Ferris Wheel from over here!"
Naoto quietly huffed as he watched one Nunnally Lamperouge wheel herself from one end of the room to the other, furiously pushing her wheelchair across with all the energy she could muster from her stickly arms, quite similar to her brothers. Obligated to keep an eye on her, he grabbed his crutches and hobbled across the room to beside where she was sitting and looked over the precipice, leaning on his walking aide.
"It's beautiful, don't you think so Naoto?"
"Sure."
Naoto, stood above and behind the young teenager, shook his head slightly as he thought about how he had arrived at this point in his life where he was babysitting the sister of one of the people he could not stand the most. Getting himself injured so that he couldn't either race or do anything else useful with which he could excuse himself, that was a start. Then, allowing his sister to pick Lelouch to be her teammate, and then on top of that, to be cajoled into minding Lelouch's sister, fresh out of hospital, who was not in a fit state to enjoy the Grand Prix on her own. While she was perfectly pleasant, it was quite draining, and no matter how much he reminded himself that Nunnally was a different individual who was reportedly the nicest human on earth, he couldn't hear the name "Lamperouge" without getting an unnatural suspicion.
Particularly not after-
"Everything all right up here?"
Naoto turned around, pivoting about his left crutch to see Sayako with a plate of lunch for the two of them, likely lifted from the extensive hospitality suite. Nunnally, who took a moment longer to turn and see the nurse, nodded excitedly before replying "Absolutely! The cars are going to be lining up on the grid in a second, this is so exciting!"
It was incredibly endearing, Naoto, though loath to do so, had to admit. She had an immense earnesty that was quite persistently likeable. Maybe this mightn't be as bad as he had expected.
As the cars left the garages, Naoto began to tuck into lunch before Nunnally asked "So this was the circuit you had your accident at?"
Nodding, he pointed out towards the back and explained "The car bottomed out on approach to the corner, and it skated into the barrier. Still hurts a good bit, but it could have been much worse."
Her face darkened, before replying "Do you want to sit? If it hurts, you probably shouldn't be standing on it. Here, I'll get you a seat next to me, one second."
Naoto, quite surprised by being coddled by someone half his age, moved to reject the offer, but Nunnally, perhaps inspired by her brother, did not take no for an answer, calling back to Sayako to get another chair over his protests. In spite of him, Sayako was brisk in getting a fold out seat and insisting the injured man sit in it. Begrudgingly, he obliged, and sat down beside Nunnally, who proceeded to lecture.
"You mustn't stress yourself. I know you've been asked to look after me; Lelouch I've no doubt made certain someone did, it's who he is. He wouldn't be able to race without seeing to it. But that doesn't mean you've got to go out and hurt yourself on his behalf. I can handle him, just rest that leg. Putting pressure on it before it's back in position will delay the time before you can begin therapy."
Nunnally was something of an authority on leg injuries, so he took that point with grace, however he was pleasantly surprised by her self-awareness. Certainly, she was a bit overbearing, but that was more indicative of her youth. He recalled a time Kallen had been just as bossy. Indeed, as he often teased, somedays it appeared as if she had never grown out of that.
However, for her to have guessed that his presence, though indirectly, was Lelouch's doing, and being more than eager to ensure he was not inconvenienced, was nothing if not a pleasant surprise. Perhaps not everyone in Lelouch's orbit was as brazenly haughty as he was. Apparently seeing his face, she chuckled, and followed up by saying "I love my brother, but he can do well to cool it off sometimes. He cares a lot, and he hates to feel to have let me down, so he's really proactive."
Naoto nodded along, Nunnally's words making sense, particularly with what he had experienced with Kallen. He had been that person to some extent for Kallen, trying to avoid her getting taken in and crushed by the Kirihara-Tohdoh bloc and cautioning her against her more spontaneous tendancies, at least before he backed off in light of her success. For once, he related and identified with the Frenchman, which left him feeling somewhat ambiguous. Certainly, Naoto's rationale for distrusting him remained as clear as his memory of that day in Brazil, however it was unfair to say that the concern Lelouch demonstrated didn't earn him sympathy. Perhaps Kallen saw that more human element, and he had missed it. Food for thought.
However, he would have to digest it another time, as the cars began their parade laps. Moving back to grab them from their place by the wall, Naoto picked up a pair of flags, one French and one Japanese, for the pair of them to wave over the next hour and a half. Nunnally picked it up exuberantly, before giving it a furious wave like a trial balloon, to watch the high end fabric flap in the wind, folding over itself as to flew high in the bright blue sky. These movements were wholly new to Nunnally, and her smile was as genuine as Naoto could have conceived, causing him, contagiously, to join her both in grinning and flying the Hinomaru as the grandstands stood in unison to acknowledge Kallen Kōzuki, who was the first person out of the pits, having claimed her third Pole Position in a row. While the races had been tightly contested, it seemed as if Kallen had a midas touch in qualifying, and she had displayed it again the previous day, with her fastest time being three tenths of a second faster than Suzaku's, just edging out Gino, who had his best qualifying of the season. Next was Marrybel, followed by Xingke, and Lelouch was starting down in sixth.
However, as Naoto, forever a racing driver from the heart to the brain, noted the grid positioning, with the Pole slot on the outside of the run down to the first corner. While this was the racing line, the static rubber could give the people on the inside better drive. That said, the outside line was shorter, and faster. On the other hand, the inside was as good a position as imaginable to block off the apex of the fast corner and force a car wide.
Naoto shook his head. He would do well to enjoy the race, as the cars completed their parade laps and lined up in their slots. They looked like toys at this distance, but their movements proved otherwise, with each driver having their own mannerisms on approach to their start position.
Kallen was furiously injecting heat into her tyres by any means necessary, throwing the car about the width of the track, lighting up the rear tyres with smoky wheelspin before jamming on the brakes, bringing the system up to operating temperature and preventing it from slipping. Suzaku was slower, practising his starts with measured romps forward before almost stopping on track, creeping forward in stints to perfect his getaway procedure in accordance with the infetismal track conditions, getting his feet in the exact feel of his throttle pedal. Li Xingke was somewhere between the two, swerving side to side to test his cars lateral grip, but not spurring up the tyres to an extent that might wear at them too excessively. Meanwhile, Lelouch, some ways back, was not doing any warming at all, clearly wanting to save his tyre's life and go longer on his first stint, even if he compromised his start.
As the drivers each reached their slot, the crowds reached fever pitch. The horns blazed at volumes beyond any engine, and the grandstands were barely visible behind layers of flags. The valley between the stands and the pits captured energy most rare, focused at the low grey with twenty miracles of modern engineering. The excitement was a physical force that shook every man and every woman, which included a visibly excited Nunnally, whose face, contorted with boundless enthusiasm normally reserved for those on ludicrous amounts of cocaine. She giggled, and commented "This is so amazing! I can't believe I've missed this!"
No matter how cynical Naoto could be, the pure excitement before a Grand Prix was infectious, and he gave a massive, wide open smile before shaking his flag, as the lights began to ignite, counting up to five.
The engines whirred, with the turbochargers spooled and primed to launch the carbon tubs towards the progressively curved turn one. The fifth light held, held, held, oh lord it held, and then dropped! The lights were out and the race was underway!
Suzaku got a worldly start, pulling up alongside Kallen in the early phase of the getaway, with less wheelspin allowing him to make up positions. Inches apart as they ran in parallel, Naoto froze up with anticipation as they danced down to turn one. Barely separable, neither dared to brake a millimetre too early, both turning at the edge of grip.
Clearly wanting to make the best of his line from his compromised position on the inside, Suzaku held as wide as he could, wanting to either cajole Kallen into backing off and yielding or going out wide onto the green stuff.
But Naoto knew Kallen. Left between a rock and a hard place, she would swear off either and fight her way out. And so, as Suzaku held straight towards the outside kerb, inviting her to run out of tarmac, she held her line, and when he eventually had to turn, she was soon in joining him, when everything suddenly seemed to slow.
As Suzaku turned earlier, he had a narrower line, and less of an arc to pull. Kallen, who had held in the throttle with immense bravery, turned only at the last minute when Suzaku left the space, however this led to her having to take a harsher line across, turning in much more severely and cutting her line across Suzaku's. Kallen pulled in, and tried to keep her front end up with Suzaku's, but the corner narrowed, forcing the cars into single file, and two into one doesn't go.
Kallen still tried to keep at least her nose in the fight for first, however Suzaku, with a car filled to the brim with fuel making it heavy and lethargic, and he understeered wide, his car floating to the outer edge of the track, unwillingly cutting off Kallen. As his sidepod ran into and pushed against her nose, her car surrendered to the lateral forces, and the car pirouetted like a sad spinning top.
Naoto was solid as a stone with nervous shock, knuckles white and spine stuck in bolt upright position. Tragedy, at the first corner! He shook at the torso with frustration, letting out a terse breath of disappointment as Suzaku, only briefly unsettled by Kallen hitting his side, shot off into the esses, followed by Li Xingke, Marrybel Glinda, Lelouch Lamperouge, and the rest of Formula Ones motley crew, but one, with Kallen having to wait for the traffic to disperse before she could reenter the track, and if Naoto knew anything, he knew she would be driving angry.
As the view cleared, with the cars having driven off towards the meat of the track out in the country, Naoto shook himself, easing out the tension in his muscles. It was disappointing, but Kallen could charge through the field, and always put on a show while doing so, as seen in Britain last year. There was still hope.
"Such a shame." Nunnally consoled. "She did so well in qualifying, I'm so sorry it's gone awry."
Naoto looked aside for a moment, and kindly shook his head. What did she have to apologise for? Not only was she not on track, but she didn't have anything to do with Suzaku or how he drove. He could only be amused by her concern, and ruffled her hair. This may not be such a bad way to spend a Grand Prix.
The cars returned about a lap of the circuit in a very short period, with their engines approaching the near end of the Doppler Curve some ways past 130R, the corner where he had crashed, as they were on approach to the final chicane of Casio, a tight complex where the drivers had to slow their cars down over the crest, where they came into view from their elevated position. As they rolled out of the exit, the corner opening up to allow them to progressively open the taps, there was a great bellowing as the cars dropped in single file down the main straight, none more than a meter from another. Kururugi, bang, from Glinda, bang, who had passed Xingke, bang, from Lamperouge, bang. Even with his sister down, it was still a great spectacle.
And of course, she was not to be defeated quite so easily, as when the stragglers at the back came into view, Kallen was right in the mix, already up to seventeenth as they left Casio and outdragging the sixteenth car down the straight, pulling up to the inside before doing to it what Suzaku had done to her, minus the spinning. The crowd went ballistic to see her get back into the race with the bit between her teeth, as did both of the injured family members up in the Rebellion hospitality booth, who cheered her on as she boomed through the esses.
Their viewing experience, due to the big screens being angled towards the crowd, was limited to this brief window once per lap, but the atmosphere made it absolutely worth it. Nunnally and Naoto even began to bet on what position Kallen would have risen to by the time she came back around. With a series of biscuits and only the knowledge of where she had been the last time she left the main straight, they had a great time trading increasing sums of cookies, before eagerly anticipating the distinct, hunkered down Rebellion, aggressive and front loaded in its setup that sacrificed stability for speed.
However, as Naoto opened up his laptop to examine lap times, he noticed that she was not pushing, keeping to a limited delta. She was likely saving tyres, which pleased Naoto to no end. She had lost the last race to pushing too hard on her tyres, and to see her learn and do better was fantastic.
And it would pay dividends as the leaders went in to pit. Kallen would stay out and extend the first stint, allowing her to potentially jump some of them with an overcut once she herself pitted. Marrybel came in first for a slick, two-and-three-quarter second stop, before stamping at the throttle to rejoin the race. Suzaku came in for a fresh set of boots the next lap, and the Rosenberg team delivered them with similar haste, sending him out of the box before he could have caught his breath. In this time, Kallen had overtaken them on track, however she still had to pit, which would put her some ways behind. However, it was still fun to see Kallen leading the race, if only briefly.
Kallen held the lead for another ten laps, before finally pitting. Everyone had gone onto the Medium compound of tyre, and so had she, but she had ten laps less wear on them, and had ten less laps to do on them, which meant that Kallen could push, and push hard.
The first victim of this new stint was Villetta Nu, in seventh, such was the scale of Kallen's recovery drive. The crowd watched with feverish anticipation as the Japanese driver closed up behind Nu, who pulled to the inside to avoid being blocked out, however Kallen then went to the outside and hung it out, managing the grip levels and going the long way round to swoop up and take the place in an awesome move that sent the teetering crowd over the edge into celebration, as it did Naoto, who laughed and shook his arms in celebration as the cars swang out of view. Next up was Li Xingke, whose slow pitstop had put him behind Lelouch. Now, all they could do was wait and see.
"I bet she gets him this lap!" Nunnally determined. It was very possible, however the nature of the track made following closely a challenge, so he imagined it may take a few more laps for her to set up the move, so he replied "Nah, I'll take that bet."
They shook on it, and eagerly awaited Kallen's return. A few people such as the Darlton brother had inverted their strategy, beginning on mediums, and so they were out of position, but the effective leader of the race was Suzaku Kururugi, now in third, followed by another backmarker on an alternate strategy that was yet to pit, followed by Glinda, then Lamperouge. All eyes were on the apex of Casio as they waited to see whether Kallen had done it.
However, all was quiet, as neither Kallen or Xingke were to be seen. Eventually, Nu was seen going through the corner, with no sign of the Japanese or the Chinese drivers. Naoto froze up, wondering what happened, before he saw the marshall at the start line waving a giant red flag, signalling that the race was to be stopped due to a serious impediment on track. This was only to be used in exceptional circumstances; normally, a safety car would be sufficient to allow marshalls to clear up the debris from a shunt. A red flag was as serious as it got, reserved for undriveable track conditions or a significant risk of a fatality.
The words were already at his lips before, behind him, an out of breath engineer had run up behind them and said "Naoto, something's happened to Kallen…"
~Eth0