Makoto was still scolding him, arms crossed, lips twitching with flustered energy. "You're seriously thinking about your house right now?! After everything—?"
But before she could finish, Sho suddenly stepped in—quick, bold, and completely unbothered by her rant—and pressed his lips against hers.
Makoto's voice caught in her throat as her eyes widened. Her mind blanked out. Her fingers gripped the edges of her skirt, trembling slightly… before her lashes fluttered and her eyes slid shut, surrendering to the moment.
The kiss didn't last long—just enough to steal her breath and her thoughts all at once. When Sho pulled back, a smirk tugged at the corners of his lips, and his eyes sparkled like he knew exactly what he'd done.
Sho was smiling innocently like he hadn't just stolen her breath in the most dramatic way possible.
Sho chuckled, clearly proud of himself, and ran a hand through his longer hair. "Worked better than a thousand apologies, didn't it?"
"You… absolute BAKA!" she squeaked, turning away with a deep blush, face nearly glowing red. Her voice tried to sound angry, but the way her hands fidgeted with the edge of her gloves betrayed her flustered heart.
She looked away quickly, arms crossed under her chest as if trying to contain her flustered heart from leaping out of her ribs.
He leaned closer again, whispering near her ear, "I meant every second of that, you know."
Makoto's knees nearly gave out.
"Geez…" she muttered, hiding her face behind her hand. "You're impossible."
"But you like impossible," Sho teased, nudging her side.
Makoto didn't look up—but her lips curled into a shy smile. "Tch… maybe…"
Sho turned slightly and started walking. "Well, since we're already in the middle of some dimension-hopping chaos again, might as well enjoy it with you by my side."
Makoto's eyes softened. Despite her embarrassment, her feet moved on their own, following after him.
"W-Wait up!" she called out, gripping the handlebars of her MTB tightly as she caught up beside him.
Sho had already grabbed Flame Kaiser—its frame now sleeker and more polished than before, glowing with soft red-orange light like it had been sleeping too, waiting. The familiar flame emblem still burned bright at its core, but the bike looked stronger, matured.
Just like them.
Makoto looked down at her own ride—her MTB was still hers, but like it had gone through its own transformation.
They both began walking slowly down the narrow alley between rusted-out buildings and broken neon signs. The air was thick with quiet static, and the world around them was muted, like an old photograph.
"So…" Makoto finally broke the silence, "you really thought I'd never come to your house again?"
Sho laughed, scratching the back of his head. "I dunno! I just figured we'd finally get time alone, and then—BOOM—here comes the smoke again! I'm cursed or something."
Makoto rolled her eyes with a smile. "You're cursed with timing, that's for sure."
"But lucky in love," Sho added confidently.
Makoto turned away again to hide her blush. "You're so full of yourself."
They walked in silence for a while longer, their footsteps echoing in the eerie quiet of the lawless zone. Burnt-out lamp posts and shattered screens blinked occasionally, like ghosts of a city long forgotten. In the distance, they could hear what sounded like engines revving, but far away, like echoes across time.
Makoto's voice lowered, thoughtful now. "Sho…"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think people still remember you? Back in this world, I mean."
Sho paused, one foot over a crack in the pavement. "...I don't know. It's probably been, what, 40? 50 years? The time difference in X-Zone was always insane."
Makoto nodded. "One day on Earth… was a lot more here. I think it was like a month… or something? If it's been a few days since we left, that's… decades here."
Sho exhaled slowly, his eyes scanning the broken alley. "So basically, we're ancient history."
"Legend," Makoto corrected him with a small smirk.
Sho chuckled. "Yamato Sho. Flame Kaiser. The boy who biked through dimensions, now back and looking cooler than ever."
Makoto giggled, covering her mouth. "You're still an idiot."
"I grew into a hot idiot, thank you very much."
They both laughed softly, their voices strangely comforting amidst the cold ruins.
Then something occurred to Makoto—her steps slowed.
"Sho… Kakeru…"
Sho stopped walking. His eyes widened just slightly.
"Do you think he… came too?"
Makoto's voice was quieter now. "I don't know, but he has to. He was few miles behind us, following us after we left for college."
Sho's smile faded into thought. "Damn. I didn't even look. I was just… focused on you."
Makoto's heart thumped at his honesty but didn't say anything.
"We have to find him," Sho said, more serious now. "If he got pulled in, and he's alone… He's not exactly built for a place like this."
Makoto nodded. "Yeah. We'll find him. He's probably freaking out and overanalyzing everything already."
Sho smirked, relaxing just a bit. "Probably calculating the molecular density of the smoke before he even screamed."
Makoto giggled. "Then tripped over a rock."
"Then blamed us."
They both laughed again.
They turned down another corner in the alley. A piece of electronic signage blinked—half-broken—reading:
"Welcome to... [ERROR]...ZONE"
Glitchy letters scrambled over the screen as it sparked.
Sho looked up at it. "Well. Looks like home sweet home."
Makoto glanced at him. "With less sunlight."
"More reason to stick close," Sho said as he bumped her gently with his shoulder.
Makoto flushed again, but this time didn't protest.
---
The neon sign above the crooked metal doorway buzzed faintly, casting flickering green light down the cracked steps. It read "The Grease Pit"—if the flickering half-dead letters could be trusted. Sho eyed it with a raised brow, Flame Kaiser's wheels still ticking as he stepped through. Behind him, Makoto walked cautiously, hand clasping his wrist tightly.
They parked their bike outside.
The moment they stepped inside, the atmosphere changed.
Dark. Smoky. Heavy music pulsed softly in the background. All around them were faces—rugged, scarred, feral. People with eye-patches, faded tattoos, and hollowed cheeks turned their heads slowly as if sniffing out the scent of something new.
Makoto instinctively pressed closer to Sho, her grip tightening on his wrist. "I don't like this…" she murmured.
Sho simply smiled sideways at her, slipping his hand around hers instead. "Relax. We've walked into worse."
As they made their way toward the back of the bar, murmurs followed them like a trail of embers. Several sets of eyes lingered on Makoto—too long, too hungrily. She ignored them, focusing on the man behind the bar. A wrinkled figure with iron-gray stubble and a long scar across his forehead wiped a glass with a rag that only spread the dirt.
Sho leaned against the counter. "Old man. Got a minute?"
The bartender didn't look up. "Depends."
Sho tapped his fingers on the counter. "We need to know where we are. And what the hell happened to this place."
The man finally looked up. His gaze was heavy, like it had seen too much. "You're in Blackridge," he said, voice rough as gravel. "What used to be Sector-7. Before… all of this."
Makoto blinked. "Sector-7? This used to be a city?"
"Used to be," the old man grunted. "Back before the Collapse. Before the X-Lord came into power."
Makoto's breath caught. "X-Lord…?"
The man's hand twitched ever so slightly. "That name's not to be spoken lightly." He leaned in, whispering, "The X-Lord changed everything. Brought with him the Red Storms. Shut down the portals. Took control of the AI cores. Turned cities into sectors, sectors into zones… And turned men into monsters."
Sho frowned. "And why are you telling us this if his name's forbidden?"
The man chuckled darkly. "I didn't say anything about him. Just said what everyone already knows. As for who or what he really is… you'd best not ask. They're always listening."
Makoto felt a chill creep down her spine. "They?"
"His enforcers," the old man muttered, eyes darting toward a broken camera in the corner of the room. "Some still function. Some don't. But you never know."
Sho exchanged a glance with her, then looked back. "We need to know more. Like how to find him. Or someone who knows how."
The old man opened his mouth to speak again—then paused.
A chair screeched behind them.
Makoto stiffened.
Three men, clearly drunk, staggered toward them. One had a bottle in his hand, the other two cracking their knuckles like they were warming up for trouble.
"Well well well…" the one in the middle slurred, staring straight at Makoto. "What's a pretty thing like you doin' in a dump like this?"
Makoto's eyes narrowed. She clutched Sho's arm tighter. "I'm not interested. I already belong to someone."
One of the thugs laughed. "That so? This guy?" He nudged Sho's chest with a grimy finger. "Looks like a tourist."
Sho didn't flinch. He simply raised a brow, calm as still water. "Walk away."
"Or what?" the second thug growled, his breath reeking of booze. "You gonna kiss us too?"
Sho gave a tired sigh, as if this whole encounter bored him.
Then a voice called out from the back of the bar.
"That's enough."
The thugs turned. Everyone in the bar did.
A man stood up from a shadowy corner booth—tall, athletic, with a bandana covering half his face. His eyes were sharp and calculating, like he was always ten moves ahead in a chess game you didn't know you were playing. A bike helmet hung from his chair.
He walked forward, every step deliberate, calm.
"I've got a better idea," the man said.
Sho crossed his arms. "And you are?"
The stranger stopped in front of them, close enough now for the others to back away respectfully. "Name's Rekkai. Former rider. Former champion of the Driftline Circuit before the Collapse. Now? I run things here."
Makoto's eyes widened slightly. "A biker?"
Rekkai's eyes gleamed. "We still do Idaten Battles here. Not as sport. As survival. And as entertainment."
Sho straightened slightly. "You're saying we race?"
"I'm saying if you want answers, you earn them," Rekkai said. "X-Lord's secrets aren't just handed out to every washed-up rider who stumbles through a portal. But if you win an Idaten Battle here—against me—I'll tell you everything you want to know."
The bar quieted instantly. A few gasped. Some laughed nervously. One of the drunken men even stepped back.
"No one beats Rekkai," someone muttered.
Sho's eyes didn't waver. "When?"
Rekkai smirked. "Tomorrow. First light. Our tracks are above—rooftop circuit. Modified, brutal, lawless. One slip and you fall twenty floors. No second chances."
Makoto gripped Sho's arm tighter. "Sho…"
He turned and smiled at her, eyes full of fire. "We've raced through worse."
Rekkai leaned in slightly. "You got guts, I'll give you that. Don't forget them on the track."
Then he turned and walked away, the crowd parting as he passed.
The bar was suddenly alive again—hushed whispers, chuckles, bets already being placed.
Sho exhaled, turning to the bartender. "Got a place to crash?"
The old man nodded toward a side door. "Room upstairs. Not much. But it'll do."
Makoto followed silently, still holding Sho's hand. As they climbed the creaky stairs, she looked at him sideways. "You didn't even hesitate."
Sho glanced at her. "I didn't need to. We need info. That guy has it."
Makoto frowned. "You realize this isn't a game anymore, right? If you fall—"
"Then I fall," he said simply. "But I won't."
She looked at him, eyes burning with something between worry and admiration. "You're still the same idiot who never backs down."
Sho smiled. "And you're still the same Makoto who follows anyway."
She rolled her eyes and bumped his shoulder. "Baka."
Makoto was still red in the face as they climbed the final steps. Sho, with that same dumb grin, walked beside her, totally unfazed by what had just happened downstairs. But her mind was still spinning from the kiss—from his words—from everything.
Just as they reached the hallway of the inn's second floor, they spotted a familiar figure hunched over a doorknob, fumbling with a key.
"Kakeru?" Sho blinked.
Kakeru startled, nearly dropping the key. He turned, face pale and a bit flushed. "Sho?! Makoto?! What the hell took you so long? I thought you'd gotten eaten or something!"
Sho laughed. "You really think we'd go down that easy?"
Makoto smiled. "We ran into some creeps. And... Sho picked a fight."
"It wasn't a fight," Sho corrected. "It was an Idaten Battle that I picked."
Kakeru stared, then sighed so heavily it almost echoed down the hall. "Of course it was. Sho, you can't just stop collecting death flags, can you?"
Sho scratched his head innocently. "I mean, it was for a good reason. He promised to tell us about the X-Lord."
"You couldn't just, I dunno, ask?" Kakeru deadpanned.
Makoto gestured toward their door. "Come inside. We need to figure out what we're doing next."
---
The room was small but functional. Two beds. A table. A cracked lamp flickering quietly in the corner.
Sho dropped into one of the chairs while Makoto pulled off her gloves and sat cross-legged on the bed. Kakeru stood near the doorway, arms crossed.
"So, let me get this straight," Kakeru said. "You entered a bar full of thugs, got into a confrontation, and then challenged a guy named Rekkai to a rooftop death race."
Sho nodded.
Makoto added, "And he didn't even hesitate."
Kakeru sighed again. "Sounds like the Sho I know. Reckless, stupid, and somehow charming."
Sho grinned. "You miss being my mechanic yet?"
Kakeru's lips twitched into a small smile. "Do I even need to say it?"
Makoto smiled at the exchange, then got up and tossed Kakeru the spare key. "Our bikes are still outside. If you want to start working your magic again..."
"You serious?"
"You want to help, don't you? Go prep them. Make sure Flame Kaiser can handle whatever that rooftop madness is."
Kakeru gave a small salute. "On it. You two... enjoy your night."
He opened the door and left, boots echoing in the hall.
Makoto closed the door gently, then turned, still blushing slightly.
Sho leaned back in his chair, arms folded behind his head. "Told you he'd join us."
Makoto shook her head, laughing under her breath. "Of course he did. Idiots attract other idiots."
Sho stood slowly, walking toward her. "So... now that we're alone."
She tilted her head. "Yeah?"
Sho reached out and brushed a strand of hair from her face. "You never said if you liked the kiss."
Makoto rolled her eyes, cheeks pink again. "You know I did."
Sho leaned in, forehead against hers. "Then say it."
Makoto closed her eyes for a moment, heart pounding. Then, softly:
"I liked it."
Sho smiled.
---
END OF CHAPTER : 4 : WHERE IS KAKERU!
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