CHAPTER 10.5_INTERLUDE (AND AWAY WE GO!)
Shinji basked in the comfort of a warm and soft bed. There was something to be said about being able to sleep in and not have to worry about cooking breakfast for the rest of the household. Or going to school. Or cleaning up after Misato. Or getting pecked by Pen Pen for being slow to feed him. No wonder Asuka insisted that he be the one to wake up and make breakfast.
Since there was not that much to do in the morning before the scheduled practice and qualifying sessions, everyone had agreed to get a good, long rest. Shinji stumbled out of bed and took his time with his morning routine. There was no urgency, no school and no volcanically grumpy red-head.
Shinji went downstairs and was surprised that there was only Charmers at the table. The suave man smiled at him as he sat down with a hearty breakfast.
"Good morning Mr Ikari," greeted the man. "It seems that you've had a good rest."
"Yes, thank you Mr Charmers," replied Shinji. "Good morning to you too."
He wasn't sure why, but Shinji was never quite at ease around the man. Maybe it had to do with that natural charm he had, much like Mr Kaji. But at least Mr Kaji was trusted by Ms Misato, and that meant a lot to Shinji. After all his experiences where the people in the world who should have looked after him either abandoned, or allowed him to drift, he trusted very few people, especially those who seemed to be able to make friends with an easy smile.
"Well, you must be excited to see how Miss Renee does in the sessions today," Charmers mused as the tavern in the Adventurers' Guild started to fill up.
Shinji nodded, determination on his face, though quite what his determination could do help Renee, he had no idea. "Yes, I think we're all excited to see the results of qualifying. I hope she can get a good starting position."
"Considering how much she improved in the practice sessions, she should start somewhere near the front," said Charmers. He leaned closer to Shinji. "Look, I can tell when people don't entirely trust me. You might think you can hide your feelings well, but I'm adept at seeing through people. You should know that I am a patriot, and that means the alliance with Boldhold and Summerise must proceed. That means Renee must win to get one of you in front of Kosta to plead your case. I'll do what I can to make your victory easier."
Shinji saw no reason to disbelieve Charmers, though a small part of him remained sceptical. He nodded. "Th-thank you Mr Charmers. That would be very helpful."
The man nodded and smiled. This time, it was not the charming, congenial smile that he normally had. It was a hard acknowledgement of a promise. It made Shinji trust him a little bit more. "Finish your breakfast Mr Ikari. It looks like today will be quite an important day in the history of Sapphirica."
Somehow, Shinji had, to quote a movie he'd seen some time ago, a bad feeling about this.
/
Shinji arrived at the track soon after finishing breakfast. He and Charmers walked slowly through the empty streets of Sapphirica. Thankfully, the sun's full fury was yet to be felt, so they didn't arrive smelling like they'd just bathed in a pool of their own sweat.
The two entered the service pits where all the sleds were stored inside locked and watched garages, such was the apparent need for security. There must have been instances of sabotage or overnight upgrades in past editions of the race.
A couple of the doors were open, including the one assigned to Renee's sled. Shinji saw that Renee and Marcus were already inside with the sled up on blocks. The two Commanders were underneath the sled polishing the bottom of the sled to a positively glowing sheen. They were not leaving much to chance.
"Good morning to the both of you," Charmers said as they approached. "Looks like you're both hard at work."
"Yes," said Renee, not stopping the polishing work. "Need to get this done and make sure everything is working before morning practice and qualifying. If we finish the polishing now, then we only need to do a quick layer before qualifying."
Shinji could see Marcus' hand poking out from underneath the sled. "Shinji, could you climb on and check to see if the steering and brakes are working?"
This was the first time Shinji had seen the sled up close. Compared to a car in Tokyo-3, it was positively prehistoric, though he wasn't sure what he should have been expecting. The bottom was a pan of hardened, polished wood, and on top sat the driver's compartment where they would stand. It was only a small compartment with two levers, one for the steering and one to activate the brake. At the front, there were the hooks on each side for the camel's harnesses.
Shinji prodded randomly at the brake lever, eventually finding out that pushing forward activated it. It pushed two large metal panels down to the level of the wooden pan. Shinji figured the brake was more to control the sled than the camels. The steering was self-explanatory, by moving the lever left or right, steering vanes at the bottom of the sled would move to turn the sled in that direction too. It was a simple and rugged design, no doubt honed by many learnings over the years.
"Everything seems to be working down here, Shinji," said Marcus' voice from under the sled. "Looks like we're ready to go!"
After polishing was finished, two guards locked up the sled and stood guard at the door. The other guards allowed each sled's racers and maintenance people in to do whatever work they were allowed to perform, keeping a watchful eye over the area. Shinji couldn't help but look around at all the security.
"If you're wondering why there are armed soldiers at every sled garage, you should ask," Charmers said from beside him. "I have noticed that you're curious, but never actually seek the answers."
"I-uh, I just don't want to bother anyone…" Shinji said quietly.
"But it's not a bother to answer a question," replied Charmers. "Most people are good and willing to help. Especially those who are supposed to be working together to enact a plan. And many people love to talk about things they understand; it makes them feel important."
Deep down, Shinji knew that. Even though his housemates were less than his pictured ideal, he actually, deep down, enjoyed the feeling of being helpful and useful for Misato, Asuka and Pen Pen. Even though they never outwardly showed any appreciation, he hoped that they understood how much he did for them.
"Alright," said Shinji, wanting to trust the words of the man. "Why is there such heavy security?"
"It's because adults tend to be even more irresponsible than children, company notwithstanding. Did you know that most of the city will be watching the race and betting on it? At least a child does things innocently without understanding the consequences. Adults do stupid things despite knowing the consequences."
Shinji shook his head. The concept of betting money on a race hadn't crossed his mind.
"When there's a lot of money involved in something, that leads to greed and corruption. Criminals can coerce your competitors, or you, into losing or winning, just so they can be assured of financial gain. And so, the race is now scrutinised by everyone, and the military gets involved in making sure it is a fair competition."
Shinji nodded, and looked around him. only now did he notice the others who were involved in the race's organisation. People with paper walking around checking things, the soldiers eyeing everyone suspiciously, and there were even those standing on rooftops just watching things.
"I…hadn't thought about that," said Shinji quietly.
"Of course not, why would you need to? Sand sled racing isn't something you've even seen before. And I'm told this is your first time in Sapphirica. I expect that some of our customs and problems would be totally new to you."
"Thanks, Mr Charmers, you've taught me something new today." He wondered absently whether any of this new information would be helpful in the coming days.
"Not a problem Shinji," the suave man said. We're helping each other, so we have to be willing to talk to each other and share information. Now, come on and let's get some food before final practice starts."
Final practice went about as well as expected. Renee was still amongst the fastest on track, a few other camel teams decided that the best way to win was to attack each other, which led to a red flag as a squabbling conglomerate of camels, sleds and riders stormed into the trackside barriers. The small crowd who was watching shouted their approval of the fracas. Even the sled drivers got involved, first shouting and then punching the living daylights out of each other. Shinji thought that from his vantage point, it looked like one of those exaggerated fights so common in early morning cartoons.
This brought out the red flags and stopped the session dead. Still, it was at least a flash of excitement in an otherwise dull affair.
The team gathered for some lunch in the hospitality section of the track after all the sleds and camels were once again locked up and guarded by the city's soldiers.
"That was a great practice session," said Renee enthusiastically. "I think I've found my ideal line through the corners and the camels seem to be getting along much better. I'm so ready for qualifying."
"Now remember that you don't have to go all out in the first round," cautioned Charmers. "A lot of rookies miscalculate and exhaust their camels before the second and third rounds, making them start further back than they really should have. It's still possible to win, but then you have a lot more work to do."
"Mm, I'll keep that in mind," Renee said through a mouthful of bread and dip.
Shinji had, uncharacteristically, been stuffing himself too. He had to learn what the recipe of this dip was. He wondered if he could try making it at home for her.
"Hopefully there are no more silly fights on track like during the practice session," said Marcus, cleaning the corners of his mouth having just swallowed a huge bite. "We lost a lot of practice time because of that."
"Yes, but you see, the people here think that if there are less than five trackside brawls during a race weekend, it's considered a dull affair," said Charmers.
"Fewer," said Anna quietly.
"I'm sorry?" asked a confused Charmers.
Anna shook her head. "Oh, uh, nothing. Never mind."
"Right, we'd better head back out there then," Charmers said. He looked at the sundial mounted to the top of the paddock tower. "Qualifying will start soon and we'll have to get everything set up."
/
Unlike the practice sessions, none of the drivers' entourages were allowed in the paddock area while the racers were track during qualifying. They were guided to seats nestled under huge sheets of shade cloth flapping gently in the breeze at the bottom of the main grandstand.
The crowd had increased in size substantially since morning practice. There were families, groups of brash young men and gaggles of chattering women had been coming in through the gates. The atmosphere was definitely one of anticipation and excitement.
Everyone found their designated seats, which were little more than the type of hard wooden chairs that made one's butt cheeks numb after sitting on them for more than five minutes, spread somewhat haphazardly along each tier of the grandstand. There was already cheering amongst some sections of the crowd, though Shinji noticed they were the ones who had already started drinking. Why did so many people have drinking habits like Misato's? Was this another examples of adults behaving irresponsibly despite knowing better?
A roar went through the crowd as the qualifiers filed out of the pits, each team of two camels and one rider identified by colourful markings on their uniforms and sleds. Some camels brayed at the crowd and each other as if acknowledging the enthusiastic audience.
"Aaaand here we go for the first round of qualifying for tomorrow's Sapphirica Grand Prix. It's the first race of the season and competitors have travelled here from all over the continent to compete!" announced a loud, omnipresent voice. Shinji looked around for loudspeakers or some other kind of sound amplification, but he couldn't see any. He shrugged and put it down to another mystery of the universe, or that someone was using magic to do it.
A few qualifiers immediately set off at a fast pace, eager to put a time on the board, in case another mishap occurred that would bring out a further red flag. Then again, there had only been one brawl so far, and there had to be four more before the crowd would deem this to be an exciting race event. Shinji just hoped that the on-track brawls to come wouldn't endanger Renee or their chances of winning the top prize of an audience with a hedonistic, spoilt king.
The first round of qualifying went well enough, Renee was firmly in the midfield and getting into the rhythm of it when a team of camels decided that they'd had enough and came to a stop on the middle of the main straight just short of the finish line. The rider, understandably furious at his moody animals, began to curse generations of their ancestors and stomp around them. The clock was still ticking next to his name, but at that point, it didn't matter since he was soundly last anyway. He tried to kick at the camels, anything to motivate them, but to no avail. As the despondent competitor slinked away, one of his camels grunted, and then farted languidly in its master's general direction.
The red flag took some time to come out, the marshals evidently watching the fiasco and neglecting their duties. They were also laughing so hard there were tears streaming down their faces. The unfurling of the red flag promptly ended the session and the ones who were too slow were eliminated from the running.
It took some time to clear the track, probably because the camels had found a comfortable place to rest. They stubbornly denied the crowd the on-track action they so craved, instead treating them to a series of comical skits involving trackside marshals tugging, pushing, pleading, feeding and, in a fit of desperation, dancing to tempt the animals away.
Renee had come back in the meantime to wait out the on-track mess, and she took Marcus to go and find some refreshments, considering there was no way to know how long it would take to clear the track. Charmers excused himself to see if there was some camel whisperer in attendance who could help the hapless marshals with their situation, which left Anna and Shinji sitting next to each other not quite knowing what to say or do.
"So, nice weather we're having," said Anna, as she shyly slid her hand into his.
Shinji's head and heart was still not used to any level of intimacy. He smiled and nodded at her, having been made speechless. This brought out a giggle from Anna. "That's cute Shinji. Come on, you can talk to me. There's nothing wrong with holding my hand is there? We've done this before."
"B-but not in public…" he said somewhat incoherently.
"Pfft, who cares. I'm the Queen of Summerise. I'll order you to stop worrying if you don't do it yourself," she pouted cutely.
It's not fair that she can do that one little thing and make me want to give her the world!
"Uh, alright," he said uncertainly. "I'll do my best."
She shook her head. "No, you will do, or do not. There is no try."
He responded by grasping her hand firmly, which elicited a small smile from Anna. "That's better. Now…"
"…is the perfect time to try this!" exclaimed Marcus, who carried some coned shaped things topped with some orange lumpy looking stuff. "I'm told this is called iced cream."
The two teenagers could only look at it and ask 'huh'. Nonetheless, they were able to reach out with their free hands and take one of the cones from Marcus. To Shinji, ice cream was not a new phenomenon, but he hadn't expected to encounter it here in the scorching desert. To Anna, it must have been new, as she held it up to her face and stared at it intently from many angles before giving it a tentative bite.
Her eyes opened wide in surprise at it, whether it was the flavour, the temperature or the texture, Shinji wasn't sure. He sampled his own tentatively, and his tastebuds exploded with flavour. It was a rich, fruity taste with a heavy texture.
"Mm, this is really good!" exclaimed a wide-eyed Anna.
"Yeah, I didn't think they could make ice cream here," said Shinji, taking another bite. "Isn't it a bit hot to make this kind of food?"
"Come on Shinji, you know there's magic here," said Renee, demonstrating her affinity for said magic by lighting small flame between her thumb and index finger. "Someone will be able to work their elemental expertise and make things cold."
"Oh, right. This really is delicious. What's it made of?"
"Camel milk, I think," Marcus mumbled half-intelligibly through a big mouthful of his own cone. "They added lots of fruit compote to make the flavour pop."
Shinji looked at the camels still stubbornly clinging to their preferred sunbathing spot on the track and went back to enjoying his ice cream and the company of his friends.
The rest of the day at the track was a whirlwind of crazy qualifying action where Renee did everything she could to dodge the mayhem. For example, one rider decided that qualifying was a good time to try and test out his camels' propensity for overtaking rather than outright speed, misjudged the manoeuvre and ploughed into the back of the sled in front, sending rider and animal somersaulting into the sand. Then there were the camels who thought it would be a good idea to run the course in the reverse direction.
It all added up to a lot of action and entertainment. Shinji could understand why it was such a big event, and why so many people showed up to watch.
Renee showed she was a wily racer, managing to get through to the final round of qualifying and ending up in sixth on the grid. While this was a good starting position, Charmers warned there was still the chance of a massive pileup at the first corner, a tight right-left-right chicane complex.
Shinji and his companions went to bed that night satisfied but a little tense, hoping for the race to go their way the next day.
/
The next morning, Shinji went through his morning routine quickly. He wanted to get to the track to see if there was anything that he could do to help prepare for the race.
Only last night did he understand the gruelling length of it, fifty kilometres of racing across the dunes and flats in the desert just outside Sapphirica. The race would probably take an hour at top camel speed, with the riders and their camel teams would spend most of that time out in the sun going as quickly as they dared. It would undoubtedly be a test of endurance and race craft.
For the first time in a while, Shinji saw Renee's serious face. She knew how important winning the race was to the future of the alliance with Sapphirica. The party ate breakfast together in companionable silence, everyone thinking about the best way to win, even if there was no way that most of them could influence the outcome.
They and what seemed to be the entire population of Sapphirica, and then some, walked to the track. There was a truly carnival like atmosphere along the way. It seemed as if all of the city's market vendors had set up shop along the major avenues with mobile stands. There were more iced cream sellers, merchandisers touting their superior seat coverings (which seemed like a good idea considering Shinji's butt was still numb), shoes, balloons, snacks, drinks, hats, decorations, flags…
It was overwhelming. Even though Shinji had gotten used to living in a massive metropolis like Tokyo-3 for some time, there had never been a crowd so dense as this before. Despite the crush, everyone was respectful, there was no pushing or shoving. Everybody was there to have a good time. They seemed to want to let the craziness and action happen on track.
The Summerisians went through the competitor's gates and were quickly whisked to the maintenance area where they were able to quickly polish up the sled, and then leash the camels on to it. Renee did a final walkaround inspection, wanting to leave nothing to chance for the main event.
Minus Renee, they moved on to their reserved seats in the main grandstand. The roar of the crowd was deafening here. Every seat was filled with at least one person, roving vendors were making a killing, wispy scarves signifying a person's preferred riders were billowing in the breeze, and big soft balloons were being punted around the place.
Shinji couldn't help but be affected by the carnival atmosphere too, with a huge smile plastered on his face. Anna noticed his good mood too, and gave him a radiant smile. It was only then that he realised they'd been holding hands the whole way there. There was no need for words to be spoken between the two of them.
They sat down at their designated Team Redwood seats just as the parade started. Extravagant floats of all sizes, shapes and colours crawled past, with each rider and camel team under their own float. A marching band flanked the floats on each side of the track, the heavy bass of the beats nearly drowning out the music being played and the lyrics being sung. As each team reached their starting position, they were deposited on the ground, the floats continuing on their merry way.
The final float was both surprising for just how insanely expensive it must have been to build, and for being entirely predictive of who was riding on it. King Kosta had turned out with his entourage of half-naked servant women, who surrounded him with fans, food and drink. He also had his customary grin, staring at the crowd, but at nobody in particular. The crowd went wild seeing their sovereign, while the Summerisian party just looked non-plussed at the scene.
Kosta's float reached a tall platform in the middle of the grandstand, where he and his groupies stepped off. The float trundled on without them, disappearing into the desert sand with the rest of the giant contraptions. He remained standing there at the platform, serene, powerful and, most importantly, well fanned by giant green leaves. He raised his arms, building the crowd's cheers and chants to fever pitch.
"Hello and welcome to our coverage of today's Camela One World Championship race, live from the Sapphirica International Raceway. I'm Dawid Krofti, and in the commentary box with me today are Jonny Sherbert and Janson Button," said a disembodied voice emanating from somewhere on track.
"Wow! Look at the crowd today Krofti. It's always a carnival atmosphere here isn't it?" said another. As he said that, some kind of projection of the formed up grid started to be projected above the grandstand. Of course some kind of magic necessary to show the crowd a view of the race given the length of the track.
"No doubt about that, the crowd is going wild with anticipation for the race start by our generous host, King Kosta himself!"
There were no words uttered on the platform while a groupie gave him a small package. Kosta duly displayed it on front of the crowd, which elicited an even louder roar than Shinji thought possible from those gathered. Kosta, sensing their approval, lit the package and threw it off the platform.
The package floated down as it burnt ferociously, giving off a bright red smoke. Everybody had quietened down now, the noise down to just a murmur. The sled riders were also watching the package, knowing that when it...
Exploded!...
And the hiss and crackle of green fireworks came from where the package had been in the air, it signalled the start of the race.
"And it's fireworks out and away we go!" shouted what sounded like Krofti to Shinji.
The camels all set off at once, the track now a cacophony of sound, braying and shouting as all thirty sleds jockeyed for position going into the first chicane. There was so much sand kicked up in the chaos that the crowd couldn't see who was who, but they didn't care about that. They just cheered and roared their approval as the much anticipated action began in earnest.
The first chicane was reached in seconds, riders desperate to slow down their sleds in time before they collided with competitors, or missed the corner completely. Most were jockeying for position as they sought track position. Two trails of dust emerged as the field rounded the turn, three sleds had somehow become entangled in the sandy miasma, their camels all confused and defaulted to running in a straight line with their riders being relegated to mere passengers for the ride. They ended up in a wall, with a humorous argument starting about who was ostensibly at fault. The riders tried settling it right there, but they were definitely out of the race.
"Oh what a first corner! Three are out already!"
"Wow! Race favourite Vindaloo, the pole sitter Tandoor and last year's champion Korma are out of the race! What a disaster for those three!"
"Never mind that, they're reaching the second tight chicane now, and the field is still very bunched up! Is there going to be another crash?!"
Now that the sand being thrown up had lessened somewhat Shinji could see the bright red and green colours of Renee's uniform and sled were in the leading pack. That was good news, but her track position going into the corner wasn't ideal, wedged in between three other sleds as it was. She was managing to keep her camels focused on the corner in front, braked a little earlier than everyone else clamouring for position around her and sacrificed, at least for now, ultimate position for ideal corner entry and exit.
The pack from which she'd detached herself squabbled into the corner, two of the camels bumping into each other and loosening their harnesses. This led to the camels forgetting what they were supposed to be doing and started fighting each other by the side of the track, biting and spitting as the rest of the field sped on past. The action spurred on cheers, jeers and laughter from the crowd as the sleds now missing one of their two camels started grinding to a halt.
"Oh no! Bernandino and Leyte have both lost half of their camel team!" shouted one of the commentators. "And Leyte had just inherited the lead of the race! What a disaster for him!"
"Yes, and Bernandino is trying to spur on his remaining camel to see if they can still salvage something, but it's having none of it…!"
Which happened to be just the moment when the camel, fed up with the yelling and kicking from the rider, gave some kinetic feedback of its own with its two hind legs. Bernandino flew back some metres and landed in the sand, dazed and very much out of the race.
The camel looked at its rider with what appeared to be disdain, spat on the ground next to him, and walked off with its head held high. For some reason, Shinji wondered if the camel's name was Asuka.
After the first lap incidents, the race settled into something of a rhythm. Renee was running third now, and playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the second placed runner. It was a close race, with the leader only one sled team length ahead and not being able to extend the gap.
Renee was trying to bide her time, harassing the team in front and tire out the camels, or make the rider make an unforced error. An error that finally came on lap ten of twenty-five. But Renee never got the opportunity to take advantage of it, because she registered that Sapphirica's alert bells were ringing and ringing.
The crowd was in an uproar, as soldiers ran and started directing people towards the exits. The race action was abandoned as the magic projections switched to a massive cloud of dust coming from the desert. It was chaos on and off the track, panicky people started pushing and shoving, trying to get out as soon as possible.
"Looks like trouble's followed us here," said Marcus, who had swallowed whole the remainder of the iced cream he'd been picking at just minutes ago. "Shinji, let's get you to where you need to be. Queen Greendrake, please go with Mr Charmers here, who will see you to safety."
And with that, a new different kind of action was about to take place.
A/N:
Hey folks, Author here. Hope you're all going well. Here is what I hope to be a fun interlude chapter. Thanks to all of you for the reviews, follows and favourites. Moar chapters to come!
alcat101 - technically the characters appeared in the prologue. Our mopey protagonist does think of them very often though, so they're there in spirit.
guest (you know who you are) - the story will return from this isekai of madness to the prime Evangelion universe.
Episode preview:
In the next episode of Mopey Boi, Shinji shovels some food on his plate. Shinji puts on some clothes. And Shinji tries explaining things.