...

Matsuo yawned and stretched as Ishiro reached for the catalog of sports cars in his backpack. "Ah, I've been waiting since I got to school earlier to show you guys this."

Ishiro opened the magazine and we all leaned on the rooftop's guardrail together to look at it. I kept hearing the constant echo of the cicadas in the background that I could hear whenever I was outside.

"Whoa, that FD looks pretty slick." Ishiro pointed to the Mazda as Matsuo nodded in agreement. "But it's 2.7 million yen..."

I scanned the pages of Ishiro's magazine. Most cars that offered high amounts of horsepower and speed seemed to cost a lot of money, especially if they were newer. I decided I'd do my research on my own later as Ishiro turned to me and spoke. "Hey Friedland, don't you have a car?"

"Yeah, but it's really old. It's an FC." I said.

"But it's still a sports car right?" Ishiro pointed to me. "Does it have a turbocharger or something on it?"

"Pah!" Matsuo patted the magazine with the back of his hand. "You want to see a real RX-7? Well, here you go." Ishiro turned to see a blue FD3S with a custom veilside fortune body kit on display with a whole page to itself. "Look at that, it looks so shiny I bet you could see your own reflection in it."

Ishiro practically swooned over it. "Wow! Yeah, it looks awesome!"

"Think I'm in love." Matsuo chortled. 

Ishiro smiled at the page with the FD. "Yeah, I don't really have a favorite. I think they're all cool as long as they deliver a good speed downhill or uphill."

"Downhill?" I asked.

Matsuo and Ishiro turned towards me, peeling their eyes off the magazine. "What're you stupid?" Matsuo furrowed his eyebrows together at me. "Driving down the mountain, racing! What else could we be talking about?"

Ishiro crossed his arms as Matsuo flipped a page in the sports car catalog. "Yeah, no matter what car it is, it's gotta be fast in a street race!"

For some reason, Matsuo always seemed to have an eye for the FD, even though there were much newer models of Mazdas, including cars from Honda and others. Matsuo and Ishiro kept flipping through the magazine. "Wow, she's hot." 

"Yeah, I bet she is," we all gasped quietly when we turned to see a girl standing there with her arms crossed. "Couldn't wait until after class huh?"

"T-Tachibana!" Ishiro hid his magazine behind his back and cleared his throat. "We were just."

"Give it here Ishiro." she extended her hand as I looked at her.

For being a girl in a video game I had to admit she was attractive. She had jet black hair with a white headband and was very beautiful. I turned quickly to see both Ishiro and Matsuo were checking her out, admiring her thighs and chest.

Naturally, I used |Observe| and brought up her |Info|.

[Tachibana Mariko - LV 1 Schoolgirl

-Info]

Ishiro sighed and handed her the magazine before she looked at the cover of it. "Cars? You all came up here before class just to look at cars?" the girl asked.

Matsuo shrugged. "Seemed interesting, I don't know."

Tachibana shook her head before letting the magazine bounce off the shirt of Ishiro's school uniform, the younger student scrambling to pick it up. "I should've expected as much. Don't know why I wasted my time."

She stormed off and closed the door to the rooftop behind her as Matsuo smirked. "Because you're so stuck up." he crossed his arms. "I swear, I voted for you every year man." Matsuo nodded to me. "It's just because she knows so many people from afterschool clubs she kept winning."

"I know I have to respect upperclassmen." Ishiro looked off in the direction she left chuckling to himself. "But she is really hot."

"No doubt about that," Matsuo said wholeheartedly. "Come on let's keep checking them out."

Ishiro flipped a page in the magazine before glowing. "Damn, look at this Nissan Skyline! It runs over 400 horsepower but." he sighed. "It's over three million yen. Why are good cars so expensive?"

"That's what makes them good cars," I commented.

"We're gonna have to work hard and for a long time if we want to afford anything." Matsuo sighed seeing how pricey the cars were. "But I guess that's what happens when you're trying to get a half-decent ride. Or at least something that's better than your old FC." he said to me.

I shrugged. "I'm cool with the car I have."

"Why? Is it even turbo?" Ishiro asked again.

The bell rang. "Crap, class starts in two minutes. We gotta go." Matsuo checked his phone.

"See you guys at lunch!" Ishiro ran off to his own homeroom.

"Bye." Matsuo nodded before turning to me when we walked down the stairs. "God isn't he annoying?"

I put my hands in pockets. "Not really, he just seemed psyched about racing that's all."

Matsuo walked down the stairs toward our homeroom. "Not you though. You didn't seem all that worked up about the cars we were looking at."

"The thing is, I don't know if I'm just satisfied with my car or not. I barely even know anything about it." I said.

"Hm. Guess it wouldn't hurt at all to put some thought into it first." Matsuo and I turned towards our homeroom together.

I had to admit this was easily the most important choice of the game. If I was going to use the car I already had or if I should save up enough money for a new one. Just from how they looked, a new Toyota Supra or latest Nissan Skyline GT-R were pretty solid choices, but there were a lot of options, typically the more expensive the better they were.

Obviously, I hadn't even begun making my journey into becoming a racer in this world.

...