Chapter 6: As the day ended

Speed Joker drove her AL500 out of the garage. She hold the clutch with her foot, and then shifted into each gear to feel the transmission.

While on the outside, Kenji Hiru leaned at the front passenger door. He saw through the transparent glass. He asked, “Any problem with the transmission?”

Speed Joker shook her head, and replied, “No, the shifting feel smooth. You did a great job.”

She looked up at her phone, and saw the time; it was 18:30. She said to Kenji, “I’ll be going home now, tomorrow I’m heading towards Tracen Academy.”

Kenji felt a bit confused, and asked, “Um boss… You’re going to run other than driving?”

Speed Joker nodded, “I’m a horse girl, it doesn’t feel great if I don’t run. Anyway, I’ll be going now.”

She drove out from the unfinished parking lot. She drove the AL500 to the road, then turned left on an intersection headed toward to the main road.

“I should clean up this garage before I go home,” Kenji murmured, and headed back to the garage.

---

Somewhere in Tokyo, there was a fifty story apartment building. It was lived with many rich people inside. There were also many expensive cars in the underground parking lot.

One man with the cowboy hat took off his cowboy hat, as he exited his car. He said, “That was an intense race, exceeding my expectation.”

This man, his name was Hotsuke Chizu. Hotsuke was a president business group called Golden Leaf Group. It was one of the most influential economy group in the country, sponsored many Horse Girl Racing behind the scenes, even sponsorship the famous Twinkle Series.

The group also owned many brands through out the country. Some of them were Horse Girls related stuff, and some are non-horse girl related stuff. They also owned some business venture outside of Japan, mostly throughout Europe.

Then there was his middle age woman assistant beside him. Her name was Arian Mahou. She walked beside him as they entered an elevator.

“Sir, did you know that the Horse Girl that you supported entered Tracen Academy?” She said to him.

Hotsuke scratched his chin, and he didn’t know about this until now. It intrigue him quite a bit.

“First time hearing it. This made me curious why she entered Tracen Academy, instead of Gran Turismo Academy. That Academy focused on as a race driver more.” He said.

“I would say, because she is a Horse Girl in nature,” Arian replied with her common sense of the world.

Upon reaching the desired floor. Arian and Hotsuke stepped out from the elevator, now they are in a hallway. The hallway was luxurious, the walls are painted in white with branch-like black motifs, and the floor is covered by a dark gray carpet with white crack motifs.

“I guess it is natural for Horse Girls in this world are fated to run. But for her, Speed Joker, she is different than most horse girl I met.” He said.

The man stopped near at a door with a sign said ‘341’. He grabbed a key from his pocket in his pants, and then inserted into the keyhole of the door, then turned it. It unlocked the door. He turned the handle of the door, and pushed the door inward.

He entered in his apartment room. This was his living room. He had the most advanced TV that anyone can dreamed off. It was 21:9 ultra wide with a resolution in 8K. Then there was the sofa, colored in black with golden leaf motifs.

Walls of his living room was colored in simple white, and the floor was installed with ceramic marble tiles.

He turned around and looked at Arian, who stood at the doorway. He said, “Come on in.”

Arian entered his apartment room, and sat on the sofa. She looked around the room, and saw the expensive glass chandelier on the white ceiling.

“I know what your going to say, Arian. I’ll get some drinks. Is there anything you like?” Hotsuke said, as he already entered the kitchen.

“I want get some milk tea,” Arian replied.

Hotsuke carefully made the drinks in the kitchen. Then he went to the living room and placed the drinks on top of the table.

“Here you go,” he said.

Arian carefully drank the milk tea, she felt her body warm up. Then she placed the cup on the table.

“So, is this about Japan Cup?” Hotsuke said.

Arian turned her attention to Hotsuke, which she nodded.

“Yes, some of the companies wanted to sponsor them more money. There will be foreign horse girls coming to the event too,” Arian said, taking another sip of the tea.

Hotsuke looked at the calendar mounted on the wall.

{This time of the year,} he thought.

“I will set those up, don’t worry about it. Also, thanks for reminding me,” he replied to Arian.

Arian said with a soft smile, “No problem.”

Hotsuke looked at the window, it was a view of the night city of Tokyo.

---

Speed Joker stopped her car near a four story building. This place would be her temporary place to stay.

Beside the four story building, it was a garage she rent to place her car.

{Well, there is no place like home. For now, in this place.}

She exited her car, then walked to the garage door. She grabbed the key in her pocket of her jersey pants. She unlocked the garage door, then lifted it up.

She went back to her car, and the drove the car into the garage. After that, she left her car in the garage and locked the garage door with her key.

After she parked her car. She went into the four story building, her room was in the third floor.

In her apartment room, there was only four rooms. It had one bathroom, one bedroom, one living room, and a small kitchen. The biggest one was the living room with a very modest setup.

There was one large sofa colored in light brown, a wooden table, and then a 16:9 1080p TV mounted on the wall.

Then there was her bedroom. Inside the room it had a single bed, a wardrobe, and a large mirror, and a make up table.

Speed Joker placed her shoes in the shoe rack, then took off her clothes in the bathroom, and took a quick shower to refreshed herself.

After that, she wore new clothes. It was a white t-shirt and black shorts.

Then she went to the living room and sat on the sofa. She leaned back, because her body felt quite tired for today. It had been quite a while for her to felt this tired.

{I’m to tired to keep my eyes opened. Seems like I have reached my limit.}

Before she went to sleep. She quickly ate dinner, and quickly brushed her teeth. Then she let gravity fell herself onto her bed in her bedroom. She snuggled her head on the head pillow. She slowly closed her eyes, and felt her entire body into rest.

---

In the midst of her dreams. Speed Joker saw her hand, it was translucent. She touched her face, she felt it, but there was no pain. She also wore a white dress, instead of the white t-shirt and black short she wore in bed.

Then in front of her view, there was a house made of red bricks appeared. It was surrounded in a neighborhood filled with many people. She saw strange cars drove by on the road.

{Where is this place?}

She walked on the concrete sidewalk, her foot felt nothing; no hot, cold, or even texture of it. Then she guessed, “It must be a lucid dream.”

As Speed Joker was more aware of her surroundings. She saw a man with a blond hair with crystal blue eyes. He also wore a polo t-shirt and a blue cargo shorts.

Speed Joker looked on his right hand, she saw him carried a coffee drink that he bought a nearby shop behind him.

{Huh…}

Somehow, when she looked at the man, it felt very familiar to her. Then a flash of picture came from her memory, it was no doubt Granz Hermann. But, from what her memory told her, this was when he was still at the young age of twenty five years old.

Granz looked at the man who wore in suit, he said, “Ah brother! Its been a while, why are you here for? I thought you were still in America.”

The man in suit replied, “I was in America, and then came back to Germany to see you little brother.”

{Ooh, this must be his brother. But why his face is quite obscure to see,} Speed Joker thought, as she looked at the face on the man in suit. It was blurry and scribbled, can’t be identified by anything.

Then the man in suit grabbed his phone from his pocket, it let Granz saw a picture of a horse he bought. It was a stallion with light gray with dark gray spots. It also has a price tag of five thousand dollars below the picture.

{I don’t know what is a horse. From what I learned in school, my place only had horse girls since ancient times,} Speed Joker thought, {Maybe I could learn more or two about this world of this memories.}

“Oh, that is a very good horse. What type of breed?” Granz said with curosity.

“From what I know from the farm, its mixed bred of a draft horse and a normal horse,” his brother replied, remembered what the farmer told him.

“That is very unique breed. So why do you buy it? There is better options out there,” Granz asked.

“I want to raise it, and probably try to race it on a racetrack. I wanna know how the horse handles, at the same time; this was the first horse breed from a different family tree,” his brother replied.

Granz nodded on his brother reply, it was understandable for him to know his brother very well since young age.

Then his brother wrapped his left arm around onto Granz’ neck, he said, “So how is your racing career going?”

“It had been well, I already joined a racing team named Furmark. From there, I already won the rookies championship in DTM,” Granz replied.

“That’s my brother!” his brother replied excitedly with a nudge on Granz’ head.

Speed Joker chuckled at the sight of both man, it felt warm coming from them.

Then she heard a truck horn came from behind, her eyes widened in surprise.

---

In a flash, Speed Joker opened up her eyes quickly. She felt her hands were shaken, and felt sweat around her neck.

{That felt way too real,} she thought.

She looked beside of her bed, her blanket colored in green with a picture of a white flower fell on the floor. She could only heard sound of a ticktock came from a clock mounted on the wall.

She looked at the clock, it displayed a time of 4:30. Then turned her attention to the glass window in the room. The sun had not risen yet from the horizon.

Speed Joker rubbed her eyes, and felt of can’t fall a sleep. She sighed.

{Dreams like this felt the worse,} she thought.

She sat on the bed for while, and then stood up as she felt like it.

Speed Joker left her bedroom, and went to the kitchen. She grabbed a mug from the cabinet, then filled it up with water. She drank it. Then placed the mug on top of the counter top.

She sat on the chair, and re-organized her thoughts.

From what type of horse girl she had become, it wasn’t normal.

Many of the horse girls in this world are a lot more normal compared to her. They had not much in mind, and thought about their own professional running careers in the long run. Sure, she passed the paper exam in Training Central Academy with flying colors. Probably the smartest person to ever aced the entire exam in the history.

Then, there were the people in the Academy. All of them had their own dream to thrive with. For Speed Joker? She hadn’t any dream she can carry on her shoulders. But she knew life it self had fate around her neck like a string. But for her, there were two strings; along with chains behind on both of her foot and hands.

In the mean time, she just had to look forward in life, and maybe had some hope for herself.