3rd POV

The night of Langa's race against Miya had arrived. Miya, Langa, and (Y/n)-- already in her skater outfit-- are already standing by the starting line of the track. The only person who was missing was Reki. He's busy working on the finishing touches to Langa's skateboard.

As they were waiting, a lot of people were talking amongst each other about Langa and wondering how he managed to go up against a pro skater. All the while, (Y/n) was feeling a little nervous standing there. It's been a while since the last time she showed herself to everyone at "S," the last time being the time when she beat Shadow in a "beef."

In all honesty, everybody wanted to see Phoenix skate again, but not now at least. Now everyone is asking questions about the rookie, aka Langa. Everyone was there to witness the race-- Cherry Blossom, Joe, even Shadow. Figuring out that Shadow was there made the nine-year-old nervous. She still thinks that the clown skater hasn't gotten over the fact that she beat him in a race. Heck, he's probably staring daggers at her right at this moment.

'I'm afraid to look, but I have to if I want to know if I'm certain that he is looking at me,' (Y/n) thinks to herself, and then makes a quick glance at the clown skater. And one thing was for sure, she was right. Seeing the flames of anger in his eyes caused her to lightly squeak as she turns back around. 'Oh, dear lord! He IS staring at me...! But now I'm starting to debate whether or not Shadow is still my idol.'

Remembering that there could be a possibility that Langa may win this race causes her to look up at the boy as he stares at Miya with a blank look on his face. A sudden idea gets in her head as a smile creeps onto her face, stars sparkling in her eyes and around her. 'If Langa wins, then I'll just replace him and he'll be my new idol! Yeah!'

Langa looked down at the girl and he notices that she was smiling at him with those starry eyes. Not knowing what was on her mind, he just smiles back with his eyes closed. But as they were doing that, Miya notices that Langa didn't bring his skateboard with him. Having the courage to do it, he speaks up mockingly.

"If I wasn't so disgusted, I'd laugh," the cat boy says, which gets the two's attention. "Is this some sick joke?" "My board's still being made. I didn't forget it," Langa simply tells the boy, which he had a hard time believing.

"Are you sure," the said black-haired boy asks.

And right on cue, (Y/n) and Langa were able to hear the familiar sound of a certain redhead's panting. Looking at where they hear the sound, they both smile at the sight of him holding Langa's newly developed board as he runs in their direction. "See?" Langa says.

Reki stops running in front of his two friends with his hand on his knees, panting as if he had just run a marathon. "You made it, Reki," (Y/n) says, happy to see her redheaded friend. "Made it!" Langa then says, in a way of translating what the nine-year-old just said.

"Yeah. Sorry, I'm late! It's finished," Reki says as he gives the skateboard he was holding to Langa. He then looks up at the sky-blue-haired boy with a confident smile. "Nothing's gonna stop you now."

Langa seemed astonished by his skateboard. Looking back down at Reki, he gives him a nod, as a way of showing his thanks and confidence. The sound of Miya's voice then catches the trio's attention.

"You plan to try it for the first time during a race? Like the power of friendship will keep you from losing tonight?" he teases. After saying that, he looks at (Y/n) with a smirk, who was standing there holding her skateboard close to her as she looks back at Miya, not understanding why he's looking at her in the first place. "Speaking of friendship, I wanted to add something to my prize. If I end up slaughtering you..." his eyes land on Reki as he points a finger at him, "...then you're gonna become my lap dog."

Reki just stood there with a blank yet confused look on his face for a few seconds before his facial expression changed into a shocked look. "Wait, what?! Why are you pointing that thing at me?!" the redhead yells out.

"I've always wanted a puppy, and your friend has already shown he can fetch," Miya says with a chuckle. "And if the world comes crashing down and I lose this, then I'll be a dog or cat for you. Sound good?"

(Y/n) looks up at Langa, wondering what they were conversing about. All she knows is that Miya pointed at Reki and he didn't seem to like that. Maybe the cat boy was declaring something to the redhead if he was to win. Well, the black-haired boy already wanted (Y/n) as a prize, what more would he want?

It didn't take long for Langa to reply to the pro skater... No, really. He was fast to reply. "Sure, why not?" he says, which freaks out Reki.

"I'll tell you why not!" Reki yells as he jumps on the snowboarder, causing both of them to sway back and forth like two palm trees in an anime outro. "You think maybe you should ask me first before you create your human-pet trafficking ring?"

On the sidelines, two other pro skaters were watching the whole scene go down. Joe was the first one to speak as he observed what was in front of him. "Hmm. Isn't that intriguing?" the green-haired male says before looking over to the familiar-looking pink-haired male. "Hey, wanna make a bet on which one of 'em will win?"

"There's not much to bet on here," Cherry says as he looks over at Joe. "We don't need to watch this race to know who'll succeed." "Miya. So we agree, then?" Joe asks as fangirls were watching the two talk from behind.

"Reluctantly so."

"How boring."

The fangirls squeal with joy, which catches (Y/n)'s attention. Slightly turning her head, she looks and notices the two adult skaters standing there. She met Cherry in person before, but not Joe. Those two were higher ranks, so there's a reason for her to be nervous when pro skaters are watching something that she's involved in. To make her not tense up as much, she grabs her hoodie and pulls it down a pit to cover a little bit of her face as she looks back at Langa.

He looked like he was ready for the race. At this point, both Reki and (Y/n) were standing on the sidelines, watching as the street lights started to countdown. She doesn't know why, but the girl feels that Langa might win this race...

Red...

Red...

Red...

Red...

"You got this, Langa."

Green

They were off! The "beef" against Miya and Langa had started. (Y/n) was too busy watching the two skate off that hearing a sudden car honk caused her to flinch. Looking in that direction, she sees a pink car that is slowly driving past the people around her and starts to follow Langa and Miya.

All of a sudden, she feels a hand grab onto hers and starts to drag her in the pink car's direction. "Come on, (Y/n)," the sound of Reki's voice fills her ears even though it was only heard in Japanese. She kind of figured that Reki wanted her to follow him, so she does that.

As the car slowly drives, Reki takes this opportunity to open the back seat door, allowing (Y/n) to get in. Once she was in, he closes the door and hops into the passenger seat of the car. The girl didn't know whose car this belonged to, so when she looked at the driver, she was shocked to see that it was Shadow who was driving the car.

Shadow, on the other hand, was pretty shocked to see Reki sitting in the passenger seat. He didn't even notice the nine-year-old sitting in the back seat yet. "Who told you you could sit in my car?!" Shadow practically yells. When he felt another presence in the car, he looked in the back and saw (Y/n) sitting there without her seatbelt on with her eyes still wide at the fact that she was in Shadow's car, her skateboard laying on the seat beside her. "What?! You too?!" he then yells, almost startling the girl, to which she gives the clown skater a nervous smile.

"Hello," she says in Japanese as she scratches the back of her head.

"Follow them," Reki then demands, which causes Shadow to look back at the redhead.

"This is not your taxi! Get out!"

"There! Go straight!"

"I know what to do!"

As the three were following the two skaters, (Y/n) could see a huge difference from when Langa started skating to now. And after every turn he took, it looked easier for him now that Reki changed up the wheels on his board. He wasn't struggling like how he did back in the parking structure.

As the girl continued to watch, she noticed that Langa was going to make a move to get in front of Miya. Seeing that there was a rock up ahead, the snowboarder uses that as a ramp and launches himself up off of the ground, doing a cool flip once he reached a high point in mid-air. (Y/n) had stars in her eyes when she saw this.

'That was the Backside Rodeo! Langa told me about a move like that! That's a trick that is mostly used in snowboarding.'

"Oh, wow! That board! What is it?" Shadow asks as he observed how Langa was able to pull a move like that on a skateboard. "It's my secret snowboard-wheel-sauce. I remodeled it to spin with movement, so it can go sideways if he wants. That way he won't stress the board no matter which way he swings the nose!"

And right as Reki said that Langa was able to make a sharp turn on an upcoming corner. Shadow continued to drive the car so that they were able to catch up with the two skaters. "What are you smokin'? If you did that, he'll never be able to skate straight!" Shadow then said as he looks at Reki.

The redhead admires Langa's board with a smile. He knows that only Langa can skate on that board. "No, you wouldn't. But Langa is savage. The way he rides his board is insane!" Reki then sticks his upper body out of the window as he hollers out to his friend. "You ride that L(f/n/i)2S!"

Miya looks back and notices the redhead there in the car. He sends a glare in his direction as he skates. "Sounds like the Slime Combo!" he says as he remembers back when he used to have friends. In the past, Miya was starting to get good at skating, and because of that, his friends pushed him away. 'Why am I thinking of this right now?' He thought that his friends no longer wanted to hang out with him because he was better than them.

That's why he no longer looked for people lower-ranked than him to be his friend. But once he found out about Phoneix, he realized that she was on the same level as him. He thought this would be a chance for him to find a good friend who will understand him because they are the same. He wouldn't have to be alone anymore.

.

.

.

"I can't lose... Not after what I've had to deal with." The thought of him losing to a rookie made Miya's blood boil. "Especially not to him! Stupid slime!"

The three people in the pink car noticed how fast Langa was going on his skateboard and that astonished them, well Shadow mostly. "Holy balls! How fast is that board?" the clown skater asks. Reki only smiles before he answers back.

"A lot faster than he's displaying right now!" the redhead says.

Up ahead, (Y/n) notices that there was another corner, but that corner was the one with the tree. She always knew that corner was no good, so she worried about her friend. But as he got closer, the next thing he did surprises the girl. As Miya was using his gloved hand to turn, Langa speeds up and skates past Miya, which shocks the said boy. Once he was only a few inches in front of the tree, he does an ollie and lands his skateboard on a tree branch. With the amount of weight he had on the branch, he catapults himself back on track, giving him the momentum he needed to take the lead.

(Y/n)'s eyes go wide as she then stands up and leans forward and goes in between Reki and Shadow, not caring that she was probably putting herself in danger without a seatbelt on.

"Whoa! He actually nailed it!" the girl says in English, which catches the two's attention. Reki was the first to react as he grabs (Y/n) and brings her onto his lap so that she was not standing like how she was before. "Sit properly, (Y/n)," he tells the girl even though he knows that she didn't understand what he said.

Miya got annoyed after watching Langa pull that trick. "I can't lose! I won't!" And right as the next turn came up, Miya did an ollie and pulled a rail slide on the inner bump on the track. Langa sees this in the corner of his eye and was shocked to see the boy do a trick like that, making him take the lead. "I'm the hero! I'm not a slime!" the cat boy yells as he finishes up his trick.

In the car, Reki, (Y/n), and Shadow watch with their eyes wide. "What's that kid's deal?" Shadow questions. Reki watches intensely at the black-haired boy with his arms wrapped around the nine-year-old's waist.

'Did he just shortcut with a rail slide by using the bump on the inner side? Langa! This guy's a freak of a skater!' Reki says in his head. Looking back at Shadow, he speaks to get the clown skater's attention. "We gotta get ahead, old man!"

"I'm not old! I'm twenty-frickin'-four!" Shadow then yells as he speeds up. The change in speed startles (Y/n) as her back is pressed against the redhead's chest. Her eyes then scan the abandoned factory as Shadow drives the car in a different direction to get to the finish line faster.

Inside the factory, Miya and Langa are already skating on the catwalk as people from below are cheering for them. The snowboarder seems to be struggling to get ahead of Miya as the said boy is trying his best to keep the sky-blue-haired boy behind him.

"I never lose. That's why I'm the hero," Miya tells Langa, which causes the said teen to gasp. He didn't know what to do. At this rate, there's no way he can get ahead of the pro skater.

'This is bad. I can't use the course (Y/n) used at this speed. What do I do?' Langa thinks to himself, feeling lost.

The sound of a car honking snaps him out of his thoughts, causing him to look down at the crowd. Coming out of a pink car were Reki and (Y/n), which surprised him. 'Reki? (Y/n)?'

Reki then places his hands around his mouth as he yells something inaudible to his friend. Even though it may not have been heard by the people around, Langa knew what he said. Langa sends a quick smile to his friend before his facial expression changes into a serious one.

Miya, on the other hand, had his focus on the finish line, not caring to look back at Langa. "There's my win," the black-haired kid says to himself as he smirks. Having the courage to mock Langa, he turns back around to face him. "I told you. It's useless!" he says as he shifts his board to stop his board, in a way to catch the snowboarder off guard.

This doesn't work on Langa as he does an ollie and starts to slide down on the handrails. As Miya comes to a complete stop, he looks at Langa with a shocked and scared look on his face.

"Stop! The handrails are too jacked up! You're not gonna make it!" Miya yells to the boy.

"You're gonna fall!" Shadow then yells from beside Reki and (Y/n). The nine-year-old was too afraid to watch what was going to happen next, but she built up to courage to continue watching. And the next thing she saw surprised her.

With the front wheel Reki replaced, Langa was able to rotate his board so that he was able to go over a broken part of the rail. This surprised Miya as he started skating again, trying to catch up with Langa. Reki and (Y/n) smile at the sight.

Everyone around started to cheer louder than before as the two skaters got closer to the finish line. And the next thing you know, the two skated past the finish line almost at the same time, but it was evident that Langa won that race.

After Langa and Miya stop skating, (Y/n) smiles brightly as she starts making her way to her sky-blue-haired friend. Everyone started yelling things as they cheered for Langa.

"The rookie won it all!"

"How did Miya lose?"

As Miya was sulking to the side, Langa was feeling something deep down inside of him. His heart was beating harder than it ever had. It felt weird...

'My heart is beating hard. This is nothing like snowboarding. Is this what (Y/n) meant when she said to look for a feeling deep down inside me? Is this that feeling?' Langa asks in his head, remembering that night he dropped (Y/n) off before the race.

~~~~~~~~~~

"When you skate against Miya, don't focus so much on the race. Look for a feeling deep down inside you. A good feeling. It'll motivate you to keep skating... That's what makes it fun!"

~~~~~~~~~~

Langa smiles as he clutches his hand over his heart. 'This is a good feeling indeed.'

"Langa!" The said boy hears a familiar voice. He turns and sees (Y/n) and Reki running in his direction with a smile on their faces. "Hi," He greets them as (Y/n) wraps her arms around him and hugs him. Langa hugs her back as Reki stops in front of the two.

"You're so awesome!" Reki then yells as he jumps on Langa and joins in on the hug. "That was seriously dope!" Langa smiles at his redhead friend after hearing him say that. Reki then puts his full attention on the skateboard Langa used to skate. "My precious Reki L(f/n/i)2S! I've never seen anything like it in my entire life!" The redhead fanboys with stars in his eyes as he admires the skateboard.

"It doesn't skate itself," Langa then states as (Y/n) still had her arms wrapped around the teen. Reki looks up at his friend with a smile. "I know! The way you moved it was even more impressive." Once Reki stood up, the two of them did their "high-five then fist-bump" handshake, which made (Y/n) smile.

"I don't understand how I lost," the sound of Miya's voice caught the trio's attention as they look at the sad cat boy. Reki then steps forward to the pro skater.

"I can explain it to you if you want. Why you failed," he says, making Miya glare at him. "What do you mean?" Miya asks, almost in a demanding tone. "The reason we started skating was to have fun," Reki answers.

The only thing Miya could do was glare even more at the redhead, thinking about the times in the past when he did have "fun" skating. "Fun? Sure, I guess so. I think I had a lot of fun, in fact. At least, in the beginning... For a while."

Even though (Y/n) didn't know what Miya was saying, she could tell that he was talking about something sad by the tone of his voice. The only word that the boy said that she knew was the word, "fun." She learned how to say that word in Japanese a while back on the website she found on her phone. He might be talking about a time when he did have fun, but then that feeling of fun disappeared. As close as her guess might be, she doesn't know exactly what he said.

"But then everyone disappeared. They leave you behind when you get good. No one wants to play when you win all the time," Miya finishes off. Once he was done, Reki uses his hand to flick the cat boy on his forehead, causing him to flinch at the sudden pain. "Ow! Why'd you do that?!" Miya shouts as he places both of his hands over his forehead.

"Why are you a dumbass?" Reki then asks, which causes Miya to look at him with a confused look. "Not everybody's obsessed with winning."

"Hey, Miya," Langa says, getting the said boy's attention. "I had a great time. Let's skate again soon," the snowboarder says with a small smile. Miya looked taken aback by what Langa said. Reki looks at the boy with a smile on his face.

"It doesn't matter whether we win or lose. We're still your friends who love to skate!" the redhead tells him. After he said that, Langa whispers something in (Y/n)'s ear, which catches Reki and Miya's attention. Once Langa was done, the nine-year-old nodded and then looks up at Miya as she walks up to him. The black-haired boy was a bit confused by her action, but then had a surprised look on his face when he saw her lift her hand out to him to shake. A smile then appears on her face.

"F-friends," She says in Japanese.

Miya could feel tears fill up in his eyes as he stares down at the girl. Hesitantly, he grabs her hand with his and shakes it. After that, (Y/n) giggles as she does a closed-eye smile at the boy. Seeing this caused his heart to jump, not used to this feeling of friendship yet. He doesn't know whether he should smile or not.

But from behind, Reki grabs onto the cat boy's cheeks and started to spread them apart. "Where's that smile? Where is it? Show me!" the redhead says while sticking his tongue out. He then starts to pull funny faces as he continues to pull on Miya's cheeks.

At this point, (Y/n) is standing beside Langa as she holds in her giggle. "I can't tell whose face is funnier. Miya's or Reki's?" the girl tells her friend as she looks up at him with a smile. He then smiles back down at her as he speaks. "I can't tell, either. But Reki does seem to have a weird face," Langa says, which causes the nine-year-old to giggle. Reki hears her giggle and starts to get a bit suspicious.

"What are you two talking about?" Reki asks with squinted eyes.

"Nothing. We were just talking about how 'unique' your face looks," Langa tells the redhead with an innocent smile.

"Don't try to trick me with your guys' fancy words! I know you two were saying something funny about me!" Reki then argues back. Miya's eyes seem to brighten as he watches the two argue. The way they looked happy made him feel happy as well. Not being able to hold it back any longer, he lets out a laugh.

Everything seemed fine, until...

"Skating should be fun, yes~" the sound of an unfamiliar and creepy voice catches (Y/n)'s attention, including everybody else in the abandoned factory. Standing there on his skateboard by the entrance of the factory was a tall, creepy guy with blue hair wearing a red cropped outfit with gold accents and a cape. "That's something each of us could stand to learn."

As the tall skater skated towards the center of the crowd on his horned skateboard, everyone started to whisper amongst each other.

"It's Adam!"

"Seriously? I've never seen him before."

"Whoa, the legend has descended."

"Adam's here?" Miya questions out loud. "No way," Reki says as his face suddenly changes into an excited one as stars appeared around him. "The legendary Adam?"

(Y/n) just stood there beside Langa as she observed this mysterious skater. She's never seen him or heard of him ever, so this is the first time she'll ever encounter him. "Adam?" She mumbles to herself, making sure no one else heard. Hearing everyone else say that name, she figured that that was probably his name.

"You seem to be running on empty again, Miya," Adam tells the boy, which causes him to look at him with a shocked look as he tenses up. He then looks down in shame, Adam's words getting the best of him. "Friends skating is wonderful. At this point in your life, you have nothing left." The only thing Miya can do is stand there as his breath hitches.

"Well, anyway," Adam says as his attention goes to Langa and (Y/n). The nine-year-old tenses up once his not-able-to-see eyes land on her, which causes her to grab onto Langa's arm in fear. "I observed your technique. You two have quite a talent."

Langa seemed confused about what he said while (Y/n) was way more confused because she doesn't know what he was saying. As Adam started to skate toward the two, (Y/n) got even more nervous. "Brilliant, actually! But you'll be even better if you fix how you shift your body weight."

Seeing how nervous (Y/n) was, he skates over to her and kneels at her height, which freaks her out even more. He smiles at this as he speaks. "For instance, when you do an ollie. Take your foot and..." Adam lowers his hands towards the girl's leg, not touching it at all. "May I touch you?"

It made (Y/n) feel safe that she was wearing leggings underneath her skirt, but it still scared her nonetheless. Especially since she doesn't know what the skater is saying, she saw this as a red flag and clung to Langa's arm for dear life.

"Hold on a second," Reki says, getting Adam's attention away from the nine-year-old, which she was grateful for. "Take back what you said about Miya!" After hearing Reki say that Miya gasps, wondering why he's defending him.

Adam chuckles with a smirk on his face as he looks at Reki. "And what if I will not take it back?" he asks the redhead. "Then you leave me no choice!" Reki says as he picks up Miya's skateboard and holds it out toward Adam.

"I'll make you!"