"There'll be people instructing which directions you should go along the way. In total, there should be eight checkpoints. So please watch for those signs carefully. Now let's get this race started. Racers please get into your position." The flag-holder announced. Ryo and Neo walked back to their cars which were parked along side each other and got in.
Sakura was standing at the sideline cheering loudly for Ryo. Touya and Takashi joined her in frontline. Syaoran and Eriol stood a bit further away from the trio.
"RACERS GET READY.
"5 4 3 2 1 GO!"
At the last word, both cars left the starting line in a flash.
"Touya can we follow them?" Sakura asked staring at the back of the two disappearing cars.
"You know we can't, not this one anyway." Sakura pouted.
"Don't worry kitty," Takashi patted her head. "There's always a next one."
"Tak! Stop calling me that!"
"But you're such a cute kitty!" Dodging Sakura's fist, he said. "Better luck next time…kitty." With a laugh, he walked away.
"Just you wait Tak. Just you wait!" She shouted.
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Takashi was still laughing when he joined his two Hong Kong's friends.
"You're close to her?" Eriol asked curiously.
"Her? Oh, you mean kitty."
"Kitty?"
"Sorry, I mean Sa-Cherry," Takashi inwardly smack his forehead. Better be more careful next time. Thank goodness his friends didn't catch his slip.
"I nick named her that. She's-how do you say it…" He tapped his chin. "Ah yes. Feisty. Like a kitty." He smiled. "And yes, we're close. All of us are."
"All of us?"
"King, Ryo, me and her. We've known each other for a long time."
Eriol nodded. "So, she's a part of NOX then?"
"Yes and no,"
Syaoran and Eriol looked confuse so Takashi elaborate. "Cherry is a free-racer. She sometimes race for NOX, when she is needed or wanted but most of the time she raced against anyone and everyone who challenged her.
"She likes to test out her skills but if she's in a team…it restricts her ability to do so. Besides, she can't anyway."
'I still don't know why Touya won't let her join NOX. She's an excellent racer.' Takashi thought to himself.
"Huh, why's that?"
"Never mind that," Takashi replied and changed the subject.
"So, you two know her in HK?" Seeing both of them nod, he continued. "How did you meet her?"
"Well, there was a rumour about a pink Spider appearing out of no where. Beating my girlfriend—she's a third rank in female racing list. Then the second rank and she won a drag race and then she beat Mei. You remember Meiling?"
"Uh huh…Isn't she first in the rank?"
"Yeah, well she lost, just about a month ago." Takashi hid his grin. That was only the beginning. He knew that his kitty would never stop at that, not until she had race against the top male team.
"She's becoming very popular in Shinto, being mysterious and all. I'm surprised to see her here, in Japan though. I thought she'd be in HK."
Takashi shrugged. "It's holiday. Maybe she's visiting her friends and family? I don't really know."
Syaoran looked at his friend sceptically but didn't voice out his opinion. It was unlikely for Takashi not to know about Cherry. He had said earlier that they were close and yet here he was contradicting on what he had said earlier. His friend was hiding something from him. And he'd bet that 'something' would solve the mystery of whoCherry was.
Eriol nodded. "It's possible." He sighed, frustrated. "God I just wish someone would tell us who she is. I mean we know absolutely nothing about her. Only that she's an awesome racer. No one knows where she had come from, which school she goes to. Its like 'Cherry' only appears at night and when morning comes, she's gone."
'How right you are…' Takashi thought, grinning.
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Ryo gripped the steering tightly that his knuckles turned white as he recalled what Neo had said before the race started.
"I'll beat you and then I'll take your girl away. Don't worry, we'll take very good care of her."
He gritted his teeth. He could hear his own blood pounding loudly in his ears. Ryo badly wanted to smash the bastard's car until there was nothing left, not even the driver itself.
'I'll beat you at your own game. I'll show you what happen when you mess with the Shadow King.' Ryo thought furiously.
His black Dodger Viper was following Neo's yellow Ferrari in the shadow. Ryo had to stop the urge to overtake. It wasn't time. Not just yet.
He turned right and then left, copying the yellow car every movement.
Neo was smirking inside his car as he pressed the gas, urging the car to go faster on the straight road. He knew his car was the best. It was of the latest design with the most expensive gear in the market. There was no way for a second rated car would beat him.
Ryo had just passed the third checkpoint. He quickly did a sharp left turn and drove into the small alleyway. He accelerated as soon as he left the alley and once again was directly behind Neo.
He realised that they were heading for the highway. Even though it was late, there were still some cars on it. Ryo concentrated at the front and saw the next checkpoint up ahead. This one was a bit tricky than the last as he needed to switch lane to the oncoming car path.
As soon as the oncoming car drove passed his, Ryo quickly swerve his car on to the left lane and swiftly back onto the right again.
"Damn car!" he cursed.
He calculated the distance between his position and the checkpoint. He found that he had only one chance to make it there, if he missed it, he'd need to do a U-turn which would definitely waste more time and the chance of smashing the bastard into oblivion.
Pressing on the gas, he swerved his car to the left side again. This time there was no car insight. He speedily left the highway, and did another sharp turn into the main road. He accelerated his car until he was driving at 170 km/h when he caught up to Neo.
Grinning to himself, he thought. 'Eat my dust.'
Ryo knew that up ahead was a dead end with a roundabout. He stepped on his gas even harder as his car went pass Neo's. Ryo shifted his gear, together he stepped on his brake and the gas. He did a perfect drift in the roundabout and slipped pass Neo and left him gaping in surprise and anger.
About ten minutes later Ryo was at the finished line without Neo's car in sight. He parked his car and stepped out with a huge grin on his face. Sakura ran up to him with a huge smile, Touya followed closely behind.
"Awesome time Ryo, only twenty minutes!" She beamed at him before added in a louder voice for those around her, including the Knights' members and most importantly, Hiroshi to hear. "It seems NOX is superior after all."
Sakura walked towards Hiroshi with Ryo and Touya in row. She gave him a sweet smile. "You still want to go through with the bet? Or you want to back out, Hiroshi? "
Hiroshi gritted his teeth in anger. He glared at them with much dislike. "I never take back what I said."
"That's good to know." She nodded. "Expect to be contacted soon."
Sakura dragged her brother and Ryo back to where their friends and team were. She chatted animatedly with them. Takashi had long excused himself from Syaoran and Eriol and had joined the group with a huge grin on his face.
Syaoran and Eriol observed the group interaction with interest.
"You know who Cherry reminds me of?" Eriol asked as he watched Sakura smiling and laughing with her friends.
Syaoran had also thought that Cherry's personality was similar to someone he knows. Someone that was close to him. Someone, who was on his mind for the past days, and that someone was—
"Sakura." Eriol said, nodding to himself. "She definitely reminds me of her. The way she laughs and acts. And her voice. Their voices are very much alike, Sakura and Cherry. If I didn't know better, I would think they were the same person." Eriol laughed. "But that can't be, I mean Sakura knows nothing about car and she definitely doesn't race."
'No. She knows more about car than she led us on.' Syaoran thought back to the conversation he had with Meiling about Sakura, when they were helping her search for her car.
'Could it be that Cherry is his little blossom in disguise?'
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"A toast for Ryo's smashing win!" Takashi shouted with a huge grin on his face. Sakura giggled. Ryo smirked as he and Takashi downed their vodka. Sakura reached for her glass when Touya took it and emptied it himself. She pouted and crossed her arms.
"Stupid Touya," she muttered, glaring daggers at him.
The NOX, Sakura, Syaoran and Eriol were at the Butterfly, celebrating their victory. The Kings, Sakura, Takashi, Kaho, Syaoran and Eriol were currently sitting in the VIP room. Touya, Kaho and Sakura sat on one couch; Eriol, Takashi and Ryo on the other, while Syaoran sat on the loveseat.
"Touya just let her have some." Kaho said. Sakura brightened up instantly and nodded enthusiastically.
"No, she's too young to drink."
"What about Ryo? He's only a year older than me!" Sakura argued pointing at the young man. Ryo grinned, lifted his alcoholic drink and drank while he knew Sakura was watching.
"I could care less what happens to him," the statement caused Ryo to sulk. Ignoring the young man, Touya continued. "You on the other hand—"
Sakura rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Nothing will happen to me. Besides, we're all friends here!"
Touya narrowed his eyes and glanced at Syaoran's way. "You can never be too sure," he said and looked back at Sakura.
Syaoran arched his brow. Touya had been glaring at him and given him dirties since after his introduction. Syaoran was clueless as to why he was treated this way. Had he unconsciously offend the man? He wondered why Touya had disliked him so much. Storing yet another unsolved mystery at the back of his mind, he sighed and drank his ordered drink.
Twenty minutes later, Sakura was bored out of her mind. Her brother had been talking to Kaho, not that she minded; she wanted to hook those two up anyway. Takashi and Ryo were singing an off-tune key with the karaoke. Eriol joined them once in a while. And Syaoran…Sakura glanced at him with a small smile on her face. Syaoran looked up from his magazine and their eyes met. Sakura blushed in embarrassment at being caught and quickly diverted her eyes. Syaoran shrugged and went back reading.
Sakura sighed and announced that she was going downstairs to dance. She stood up before Touya could refuse. She started walking when she tripped and fell. She groaned and sat down, checking to see if her ankle was sprain or not. Sighing in relieve that it was not, she leant back on her seat when she felt it moved.
She blinked. Did it just…move? She shifted slightly when 'it' moved again. Blinking in confusion she was about to speak when 'it' spoke.
"Would you mind get off me?"
Sakura turned around, her eyes widen in surprise. She was staring straight into an annoyed amber eyed boy. Why were they so close?
"W-what?"
"I said, get off of me." He repeated. Sakura blinked at him in confusion and gasped before she quickly jumped up.
"I—I didn't realise—I didn't mean—I'm sorry!" Her face burned with embarrassment.
"Whatever," he waved away her apology. "Next time check the seats if it was taken before you sit."
"R-right," she blushed and hastily went back to her couch, dance forgotten.
Syaoran frowned as soon as she left him. He had unintentionally breathed in her scent and was surprised to find it was mixture of vanilla and strawberry with a minute tint of peach. Her scent was the same as his blossom. Could it be a coincidence? Could someone smelt like one another? Was that possible? The more he thought about it, the more he became aggravated.
Syaoran growled low in his throat and snatched his drink from the table; he drank the entire content in one big gulp. The girl and her mysteries were giving him headaches.
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At around midnight, an hour after the incident between herself and Syaoran, Sakura found herself being bored once again. Not only that but she was sick of listening to Ryo's voice and his so call singing. Sighing in frustration, she got up and walked towards the said man and snatched the microphone from him.
"Hey, I was using that!" Ryo protested.
"Your singing is damaging my ears!"
"What are you talking about? My voice is heaven sent!"
"Your heaven voice is heaven sent? A baby can sing better than you!"
"That just too harsh," he cried dramatically. "Tak, Cher is being cruel!" He nudged at the boy next to him.
Takashi turned his head towards him. "What?" Ryo repeated his sentence again but he didn't hear a thing. Takashi frowned slightly before it clicked in his mind why he couldn't hear anything. He reached for his ears and took out two cotton balls. Ryo gaped.
"Sorry what was that? I didn't hear you."
"You mean all this time…you had that thing in your ears?" Ryo asked incredulously pointing at the little white balls. Takashi nodded.
"No offence but your singing sucks. My poor ears just couldn't take it after 2 songs."
Sakura started giggling. She looked at the innocent cotton balls on the table, her giggling turned into laughter.
"T-that was just p-precious! Oh my god and all this time…you were…Ryo…" She dropped onto the couch, clutching her sides in pain. "Ow…this is just t-too much. I c-can't take it."
Eriol, who was busily searching for the next song for Ryo to sing, finally noticed that Ryo had stopped. He looked up from the book and turned around. He saw a hysterical Sakura, an amused Takashi and a moping Ryo. Raising his brow in question, he took out two cotton balls from his ears and asked, "Did I miss something?"
Sakura, seeing another set of cotton balls, started laughing again.
"Not you too!"
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