He stepped out of the Silvia. The Wolves stared, not at the wreck of their leader’s car, but at the skinny kid with the faded sticker. Drayke crawled from the driver’s side, dusting glass from his jacket. He didn’t speak. He just tossed his keys on the ground between them.
Kaito nodded. Mira squeezed his shoulder. “Don’t chase the score,” she whispered. “Chase the line.”
“I didn’t need them,” Kaito said, turning the ignition. The Silvia purred. “I already have the only thing that matters.”
Kaito followed. He didn’t stomp the gas. He breathed into it. The Silvia’s turbo spooled, and at the apex, he feathered the clutch. The car pivoted like a dancer, rear bumper kissing the tire wall without a scratch. He held the drift through the transition, weight shifting smoothly, front wheels pointing exactly where he wanted to go—not where the car wanted to fall.
He stood beside his car, a beaten Nissan Silvia S15, its hood still ticking heat into the cool air. The “Drift Hunters” sticker on the rear window was faded now, a relic of the online crew he’d joined three years ago. Back then, drifting was a game—a leaderboard chase, a ghost lap, a digital score. Tonight, it was survival.