Chapter 15:

[I can't answer the phone right now. Please try again later.]

Time passed meaninglessly.

However, there was no conversation on the phone.

"Ugh!"

He was definitely calling someone, but all he heard was the harsh, mechanical sound. Today, Takahashi inhaled deeply of acrid cigarette smoke, his lungs filling with an unusually pungent smell, and put the switched-off phone back in his pocket. His face, battered by the passage of time, remained serene, but beneath it lay a hidden worry, invisible to others.

It had only been two weeks, two weeks already. Either he cut off contact without a word or he locked himself in his house like a snail in a fable.

As he had declared at the beginning, if he wanted to conquer the Great Shang in a year, every day was precious. He didn't have time to waste like this. And yet, the guy didn't even answer his phone. Takahashi sighed, frustrated.

 Of course, I knew it was a difficult task to overcome. And I knew he gave the impression of being a ruthless person.

But Takahashi had his own desperate reason. He had to accomplish something, even if it meant working for a race he hated, or rather, detested.

And it wasn't just about money.

"What should I say?"

The guy's face was beginning to blur in my memory, but anyone would feel on the brink of collapse by now. Depression, which had surpassed its limit, had turned into resentment, and he felt like the whole world was his enemy.

I've felt something like this before, but I don't know how to console. Because I've never experienced the death of a parent.

A couple of bored office workers and teachers. What are they doing now? Although it's been a while since we last saw each other after that big fight, I know perfectly well that she's alive and well.

So I can't offer any consolation. Consolation without understanding is just empty talk. It's more like poison, and I don't think it's really a cure. Besides, I feel terribly insecure about my ability to embellish words.

But even I know how to pull someone out of despair. What matters isn't mere comfort or consolation. Ultimately, what matters is encouragement. Dramatic material, grief so intense that the mere sight of it could make me cry, and someone's devotion.

Takahashi reached into his pocket again. But this time, what he pulled out wasn't a cell phone.

[First of all, I want to apologize, Tama, our daughter.]

A neatly folded piece of paper, written in dense black letters.

Just two weeks ago, Takahashi went to Tamamo's house to call her, who hadn't been to the gym or even to train. What he found there was an unconscious girl, her body hanging from the ceiling like a mobile.

Stunned by the intensity of death, a sight I'd never seen before, I discovered something beside me. A white envelope, still intact, lay on the kitchen table.

Takahashi slowly read the deceased's will, which he'd unconsciously tucked away in his bosom.

"You don't like running away, but my greed has been subtly forcing you to do so. Though I never told you directly."

"No way. This won't do."

I only skimmed it once, but I think I get the gist. It's about forgetting your father's regrets and finding what you truly want to do.

It's good advice. It's cliché, good advice, but for some reason, his hands are shaking as he holds the paper. Takahashi placed the will on the table and took a clean sheet of paper from the printer. "This isn't just for me. It's for him too, so..."

Useless justification. Suppressing any subtle hesitation, Takahashi picked up his pen.

 The dark room echoed with silence and screams. The only sound was the ticking of the wall clock. And the occasional rustle of the blanket.

How many days had passed like this? Trapped in darkness, the sense of time seemed infinitely blurred. Sunrise and sunset felt strange. And yet, the second hand moved tirelessly, and the calendar changed the date precisely.

When, thirsty and hungry, he nearly died, he crawled into the kitchen and began to scrutinize the ceiling. Did he want to live in this state? If he hadn't been born, he wouldn't have even thought of living like this. The thought of escaping his suffering only made him more miserable.

"...I have to go."

Suddenly, I remembered something I'd put off, citing my feelings of loss. I couldn't stay like this forever. But I wanted to live like this, broken. But it couldn't be.

 "Sibi, I'm sorry. It's my fault... I ruined your dream..."

"It's okay. She's our precious daughter. Really, Kito."

"I have to run."

A vague memory from my childhood comes back to me from time to time. My mother, with whom I'd never had a formal conversation, was a promising racer, incomparable to me. She might have even won a G1.

But before the crucial race, my mother discovered she was pregnant with me and ultimately gave up because of me. In other words, it was me, her daughter, who made her give up her dream.

So I had to run. My father, her coach, shared the same dream. So, as long as they were together, or even as long as one of them remained, I had to keep running. I was born to steal other people's happiness. The ultimate guilt was a destiny.

"I have to run."

But now there was no one. Not even my mother or father. Without them to look after me, even if I ran, what should I do? Should I break these useless legs?

Panic gripped me, and I looked frantically around, but all I saw was total darkness. Where the hell was I? I couldn't see the path ahead, let alone the one I'd taken. And now, no one was looking after me.

I chuckled. Perhaps because I no longer had the strength to cry, laughter flowed instead of tears. Crack

The door opened with a loud noise. Was it someone undesirable?

I gently lowered the blanket covering my face.

Tamamo gently lowered the blanket covering her face.

"Are you okay?"

"You don't seem well."

Her face, drastically haggard over the past few days, she silently looked at Takahashi. Her blue eyes, dull and lacking their usual sparkle, stared at him, scratching the back of her neck as she continued.

"How long are you going to keep doing this? I'm about to faint waiting for you."

I had told him the code to the front door, "just in case," but I never thought he would actually break into my baggage. Now that I think about it, this man was the one who discovered the body and reported it first.

Tamamo buried her head in the bedding in silence. It was obvious what this man would say, but she wasn't in the mood for such an obvious topic at the moment. Are you just going to stay silent like this? I've come to tell you something very important.

"It's your father's will."

Tamamo's head jerked up at the indifferent words. She stared blankly at the thin sheet of paper fluttering in Takahashi's hand.

"A will... from your father?"

"Yes, it's your father's will."

"But how...?"

"Actually, I met your father once. It was for a contractual matter. I received this then. Your father ordered me to open it exactly one week later, so I opened it yesterday."

Her blue eyes, like the crashing sea of a storm, trembled violently. Her unsteady gaze, naturally, was fixed on the paper Takahashi was holding.

Takahashi's gaze asked, "Will you read it?" Tamamo snatched the will he held out to her, as if snatching it away.

The black letters scrawled on the pure white backing caught her attention here and there. Tamamo turned the paper over with trembling hands. "First, I want to apologize for being such a pathetic father, Tama, our daughter."

The first sentence of the single-page A4 note began like this. Tamamo's gaze slowly lowered to the familiar cursive handwriting.

"Do you remember going to kindergarten in Osaka when you were little? I miss those days when Sibi was still alive. We had little then, but we were filled with happiness. You, just by existing, were our hope."

"But after Sibi died, everything began to fall apart. I've been half asleep ever since, and I began to crave you, the only one left, hoping to at least follow in Sibi's footsteps..."

"You don't like to run, but my greed has been subtly compelling you to do so. Although I never told you this openly."

The hands holding the will trembled. At the same time, tears sprang from my blue eyes. I thought I'd shed all my tears, but my heart was so calm it felt like it would burst. 

Although the person involved was no longer with us, I shook my head. My father wasn't to blame at all. The only fault was that I hadn't achieved anything yet.

I was born stealing their happiness. So I must repay them with the same happiness I stole. It's only natural. It's only natural. But why do victims apologize?

A wet liquid brushed against the dented Volga. Tamamo slowly, as if she didn't want this moment to end, read the last paragraph of the will. As soon as the last sentence of the last line came into view, her eyes widened.

[However, I have a shameless request to make of you. Please keep running. You will fulfill the dream your mother couldn't. Win the G1, advance to the world stage.]

The paragraph doesn't end there. Tamamo rubbed her cloudy eyes and reread the last sentence of the will, meticulously, without

missing a single word.

[Work hard and achieve your joyful dream of being 'world's best.'] 

But even after rereading the phrase, it remained unchanged. Her eyes, once filled with throbbing tears, suddenly dried. Sharp fangs bit her lips as if they were about to tear them apart. Her grip on the paper tightened.

It was as if she was suppressing her rising anger. But the violent swell didn't last long, and she let out a deep sigh. Finally, her calm blue eyes gazed up at Takahashi. The anger wasn't there, but instead, something desperate filled the void.

"Does the trainer really want me to run?"

"Does that matter? At least your father seems to have wanted you to keep running."

"It does."

Tamamo, speaking firmly and boldly, forced Yeo-won's body to stand up. Even as she faltered like a reed in the wind, her gaze remained fixed on Takahashi.

"I've always run under the will of others. So, I don't know how to run under my own will, and I don't want to. Because, frankly, running isn't fun. It's just hard work and arduous work."

This isn't just about running. Tamamo's life, from past to present, has been nothing but aimless wandering. It was the same in her past life, when she cursed her trashy parents but never escaped them, and it's the same now. She's never once left the path set by others.

That's why she can't take steps of her own. She's afraid, never once seeking her own path. She's never even tried. Perhaps inheriting her parents' dreams isn't simply a matter of guilt toward them.

Seeking the meaning of life in others, not herself. If you find it pathetic, that's okay, but Tamamo's life has always been that way. I still don't know how to break this bad habit.

And that's why she looked straight at him and asked,

"So that's why I'm asking. Does the trainer want me to run?"

And then, his eyes met hers, eyes filled with the depths of the ocean.

For a moment, Takahashi held his breath without realizing it. At her calm reaction, so different from what he'd expected, the guilt that had crawled out of the ground filled his heart.

He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to hold on to his resolve, which was about to crumble. He hadn't expected it to turn out this way, but he'd expected it from the start. He'd sworn to be trash since he'd started this job. He'd resolved not to harbor any worthless guilt.

So, even if it made him feel infinitely disgusted, even if it meant ruining someone else's life, there was something he absolutely had to accomplish. Takahashi swallowed the dark emotion, swallowing it down with a gurgling saliva. 

"Ah... ah, I, I want you to keep running, too."

Still, he couldn't completely suppress his emotions, and his voice finally trembled pitifully.

It was obvious to anyone that he would find it strange, but for some reason, he nodded with a warm smile.

[End

Author's Note: Before, I had to hit rock bottom twice before I got over the depressing parts. But Genius Olesars is different. It won't drag on the depressing plot any longer. And in the next episode, original characters will finally appear, other than Tamamo.