With Jei Chou's arrival, all eight teams competing tonight were finally present.
"Contestants, please make your final preparations. The race will begin in half an hour."
After announcing the exact start time, the host cut his mic and stepped offstage to rest, leaving the racers to prepare on their own in the waiting area.
Aside from Team 4—Mizuno and Maruzensky—the other contestants were all real couples. During the prep period, they were either fooling around together to build up the mood or encouraging each other to raise their morale.
Mizuno had originally planned to close his eyes and rest for a bit, but then he suddenly remembered that during training that morning, Fujiwara-san had specifically told him to make sure to go say hello to Jei Chou before the race tonight.
He was probably hoping the two of them could become friends.
And since you couldn't just ignore a request from an elder, Mizuno gathered his courage and brought Maruzensky over to Jei Chou's AE86, then lightly knocked on the window.
Knock knock knock~
"Hm?"
Jei Chou, who had been flirting with his girlfriend inside the car, heard the sound and turned to see a strange man in black standing beside his window. Frowning in confusion, he rolled it down and asked politely,
"Can I help you?"
"Ahem..." Mizuno took a deep breath, then greeted him enthusiastically.
"Hello, Jei-san. I'm a fan of your music. I grew up listening to your songs."
"Huh?!"
Jei Chou stared at him, dumbfounded by that introduction.
If the guy in black had said he was a fan of his driving, that would at least have made sense. After all, he was currently number one in the street-racing rankings, so it wouldn't be strange for a fan to come ask for an autograph.
But what the hell was a fan of his music supposed to mean?
And what was that about growing up listening to his songs?
Now, Jei Chou did think he had a bit of talent for singing. People had even told him before that if he debuted, he'd definitely become a huge star.
But compared to being a singer, he liked street racing more. So instead of entering the music industry, he planned to join a professional racing team someday and race on more serious tracks—or else inherit the family tofu shop and spend his days driving around delivering tofu.
So at most, the only time Jei Chou ever sang was humming a few off-key tunes to himself in the shower. He had never once shown off his singing voice in front of strangers.
Which meant that when Mizuno claimed to be a fan of his music, Jei Chou's first reaction was that this guy had come looking for trouble.
"What is this, some new kind of taunt?"
"No, no, Jei-san, I really did grow up listening to your songs!" Mizuno said with complete sincerity.
"?"
Unfortunately, with his face covered, all Jei Chou could hear was mockery.
"Then let me ask you something first..." Jei Chou looked Mizuno up and down a few times before asking in a serious tone, "How old are you?"
"Twenty-four. I'm a Trainer," Mizuno answered honestly.
"I'm only eighteen right now. I'm six years younger than you—I haven't even started college yet. What the hell do you mean you grew up listening to my songs?!"
"Sorry, sorry, just joking..." Mizuno laughed apologetically and scratched his head awkwardly.
Crap. I accidentally projected all my feelings for Jay Chou onto Jei Chou and started treating him like a king of Mandopop...
But honestly, what could he do? Anyone who'd grown up listening to Jay Chou and then saw someone who looked this much like him would want to call him Brother Jei a few times too, wouldn't they?
Seeing Jei Chou's expression grow increasingly hostile from the misunderstanding, Mizuno quickly explained, "Fujiwara Takuo-san told me to come say hello to you."
"Oh? My grandpa?" Jei Chou raised a brow.
"For the past few days, the old man's been telling me he took on a new apprentice. Said he's got great character and real street-racing talent, and told me I absolutely had to make friends with him..."
"From the way he described him, that person usually dresses in a very secretive way, never shows his face, and absolutely can't let anyone see it..."
"Don't tell me that's you?"
Mizuno nodded. "Yeah. That's me."
"Haha, I see now."
Jei Chou's tightly furrowed brows finally relaxed, and a smile appeared on his face as he extended his hand toward Mizuno.
"Mizuno, I've heard a lot about you."
"No, no, I should be the one saying that about you," Mizuno replied, reaching out as well and shaking his hand happily.
Just then, Uehara Mika in the passenger seat leaned out and looked at the two of them shaking hands in puzzlement.
"Jei, who is this?"
"A friend my grandpa keeps recommending. From what I hear, he's a pretty amazing street racer too," Jei Chou explained.
"So he's a friend. Hello, my name's Uehara Mika." Uehara Mika gave a friendly wave.
"Hello, hello." Mizuno nodded in reply, while muttering inwardly to himself.
So Jei Chou's current girlfriend is named Uehara Mika... and in Initial D, Fujiwara Takumi's future wife is also named Uehara Mika...
That settles it. Jei Chou really is Fujiwara Takumi himself.
"And is this your girlfriend?" Uehara Mika asked curiously, looking at the cardboard-box spirit Maruzensky hiding behind Mizuno.
"Uh..." Mizuno hesitated for a moment, then admitted it. "Yeah."
"Guh..." The cardboard box visibly trembled.
"She seems a little shy."
"She does."
"What's her name?" Uehara Mika asked.
"Mm..." Mizuno paused. "Her name is Maruzensky."
"Maruzensky... wait, Maruzensky?!"
Jei Chou snapped around, staring in shock at the cardboard box behind Mizuno.
"The Maruzensky you mean—wouldn't that be the former number one on the racing rankings? The Umamusume who's famous even in the racing world—the Red Supercar, Maruzen-dono?"
"Uh... yeah." Mizuno nodded.
"It really is her?!" Jei Chou blurted out.
But before long, his surprise transformed into blazing fighting spirit.
"So my opponent is a former number one? Good. Then I'll be taking this race seriously."
"Wait, no! How about taking it easy on us instead?!" Mizuno was practically in tears from that battle-hungry look on Jei Chou's face, and hurriedly explained, "She's not driving tonight. I'm the one in the driver's seat. She's handling support."
"Oh? Then I need to take it even more seriously," Jei Chou said with a grin.
Mizuno: "?"
"If someone like Maruzen-dono is willing to take the back seat, then your skills must be even better than hers!" Jei Chou stared at Mizuno and cracked his knuckles, his fighting spirit rising instead of falling.
"No wonder my old man's been telling me these past few days that there's always someone stronger out there, always a higher sky above the sky, and warning me not to get arrogant. So that's what he meant."
"You not only managed to win Maruzen-dono over, you even got her to willingly play support. You really are a rare and formidable rival!"
"So in a little while, I'm coming at you with one thousand percent of my power! We'll settle this properly!"
Mizuno: "?"
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T/N: RIP BRO he should just crash and die... escape from everything