Hikaru followed Nagisa to an old regular-sized house but with an unusually large right passage leading to a big backyard.
There was an artificial racetrack installed into the ground, and it felt elastic when stepped on. It must have been expensive.
The old house looked like they renovated it into a modern retirement home, and so looked both old and new.
The lights came on when they triggered the motion sensors. It illuminated the front of the house.
Nagisa unlocked the door and flipped a switch to turn on the lights on the side of the house.
"Wait here."
He then went to the shed in the backyard to bring out some electronic equipment that was surprisingly spotless and high-tech looking. It didn't have a speck of dust on it. He must have regularly tended to it.
A woman in her early 20s came out of the front door, went to the side and stood a distance behind Hikaru.
'A middle school student?' She thought.
She looked to her father setting up the laser timer system for sprinting.
"Dad, what are you doing and who's this young student?"
"We're racing."
"Heh? Another one? It's late you should be taking care of yourself."
She looked at Hikaru's unturned back.
'How rude.'
He didn't even bother to turn around and introduce himself.
She came closer to her dad, so she could use a quieter voice.
"Dad, why are you racing a student that looks like he's a middle schooler? Have your standards really dropped?"
"He's faster than he looks."
She peeked to the side and inspected his body.
She has worked alongside her dad who coaches new generations of sprinter athletes and worked as a personal trainer for general fitness for old people.
She has 10+ years of observation and recording data from his clients during their regimen training. So she has developed the skills to tell their physical characteristics even through clothing.
Hikaru was wearing a summer uniform, a white short-sleeved dress shirt and grey slacks.
He has a slim figure. His arms show a bit of trained muscle. Most likely Kendo training. However, she could tell his legs were ordinary and that he doesn't do any running exercises at all.
She didn't want to think that her old man was actually losing it but no matter how you slice it, Hikaru wasn't even a match for her.
She could run at 9 m/s, much faster than the average athlete, but she wasn't interested in a career in competing sports.
"Dad… It's late. Let him go home, I'll race you instead."
It seemed he was growing desperate.
He was still running close to ten metres per second a few weeks ago. His speed couldn't have dropped that much. If she let him continue this new trend, his speed will really depreciate.
"Idiot, do you think I've gone senile? Who do you think raised you?"
"Dad…"
"Done. Let's race Hikaru."
He had just finished setting up the laser gates. It is a simple timing system. The first gate shoots out a laser beam and when triggered, it wirelessly sends a start signal to the stopwatch and camera on the tripod set up at the finish line.
Since he had chosen the race function, once the second gate is passed by any number of people, it will record the time they finished.
"Hikaru-san, my name is Chisato."
She wanted to get his attention by introducing herself and then convince him to help her stop her dad. She was taking advantage of common etiquette.
Hikaru looked to his side and said: "Nice to meet you Chisato."
Chisato's eyes bulged out when she saw his face.
Then she turned her head away to redirect a nosebleed that spurted from high blood pressure.
"What's the matter? Is there something on my face?" Hikaru said as he calmly put his hand to his face to feel it.
He was concerned if his face transformed in front of her or perhaps something alien popped out.
"No-nooo, nothing's wrong, but are you a supermodel or something?"
"Oh. You wouldn't be an agent or something right? If that's the case I'll have to decline."
Hikaru could easily appear in a Hollywood movie with his good looks, she could now understand why her father would think he was some prodigal athlete.
"Chisato, stop distracting the young man. We're about to start."
Nagisa said as he went into the start position.
Hikaru copied Nagisa and placed his right foot before the white start line on the racetrack.
There was another painted line where the first laser gate was positioned. Once the first gate is triggered, it will start the timer.
Between the first gate and the second gate is exactly a ten-meter distance.
If Nagisa could break the ten-second barrier in a 100 m race, he could end this ten-meter sprint in less than a second.
It was a short race where explosive power matters.
A lot of tension was building up for Nagisa but Chisato was just upset that she couldn't stop her father.
She didn't think Hikaru could win at all. The only advantage Hikaru had was having a faster reaction speed but a little head start was useless when Nagisa was much faster than him.
"Chisato, could you please do the honours?" Nagisa asked.
Chisato sighed before walking over the track to the stopwatch and pointed her finger at a button with a starter gun icon on it.
She looked at Hikaru and Nagisa who were looking at the ground.
"Please… this time don't hold back," Nagisa said.
"I wasn't planning to. I'll be running at my fastest this time."
Seeing that they were now focused, Chisato pressed the button.
*Bang*
A recorded gunshot blared from the stopwatch.
Nagisa didn't look anywhere else. He only focused on himself.
He reacted to the start signal after 0.137 seconds. A reaction time that was above average among the finalists of the Olympics. It was the best Nagisa had ever gotten.
A giant spark of electricity discharged across his body in that instant before storms of lightning blew up everywhere in his body.
This is the energy output of the phosphagen system.