3rd POV

Walking into "S," (Y/n) noticed that there were a lot more people there than at other times. It could have been because the Matador of Love was going to be skating that night. This made the nine-year-old wonder if Adam is a big deal. She has never seen him skate yet, so she can't conclude that. Nonetheless, (Y/n) has to race, even if it's with Adam so that she can find her father, or maybe just for the fun of skating.

She doesn't know how that'll work, but it's worth a try.

"There's so many people," Langa states as he looks at his surroundings.

"Well, duh. Adam's gonna be here. He's a skating legend, undefeated, the god of 'S,'" Reki starts saying, which causes Langa to look at him with a confused look. "Why would you make a guy like that your enemy?" the snowboarder asks. "That's not what this is about! If I lose this thing, he's coming for you and (Y/n) next!" the redhead says as he places a hand on top of the said girl's head. Not knowing why he's doing that, she just smiles with her eyes closed.

"Yeah, that's true," Langa says, not acting as freaked out as Reki thought he would.

"Call it off," the sound of Miya's voice was heard by the three. They turn around and see Miya standing there while looking down at the ground. "I don't need an apology. And besides, the points he made about me weren't wrong, at least about being empty."

Reki looks at the boy as if he just saw a ghost. "You mean that? Sheesh." The redhead seems to be in a daze before he continues talking. "Here's the thing. I'm not good at understanding whys or hows. But I'm still in. I wanna blow Adam out of the frickin' water! And then watch his tears drown out that sadistic smirk!"

"There's no way! He'll slaughter you!" Miya yells back at Reki. On the side, (Y/n) is shocked that the two boys are yelling right now and is wondering why. She doesn't like seeing people fight, it's one of the things that she dislikes the most.

Langa then looks at Miya with a smile. "It's not about winning. This is an adventure," he says, and then looks at the nine-year-old who was standing beside him. "Isn't that right? Do you think skating is an adventure?" he asks the girl. She never really heard someone describe skating that way, but it was very inspiring. She responds with a smile while saying, "Yup!"

"Well look who finally gets it!" Reki says as he smiles at his two close friends. Miya looked surprised that they thought of skating that way, but he was still feeling nervous about what was going to happen with Adam.

"He's here!"

"Adam!"

Other skaters started chanting Adam's name, which got the other four skaters' attention. (Y/n) looks and sees Adam walking into the crowd with his cape draped over his shoulder and his skateboard in hand. The way he did his entrance made him look intimidating, which made the girl a bit nervous.

"That's him," Miya informed as he and the others don't take their eyes off of the said Matador of Love.

"That's quite a show," Reki then said sounding a bit intrigued.

As (Y/n) continued to watch the pro skater until he came to a stop in the center of attention, she noticed something a bit odd. It looked like Adam was staring directly at her. But because he's wearing a mask, she isn't quite sure about that. It still creeped her out, either way, as a chill ran up her spine.

'Why does it look like he's looking at me? It's freaking me out,' (Y/n) thinks to herself as she tries to not show her fear.

"Wait, wait, hold up!"

"I'm dead!"

"Cherry's here!"

"Whoa! So are Joe and his abs!"

"This is the best night ever!"

(Y/n) didn't know why people were yelling things all of a sudden, but she soon found out after hearing them shout out two familiar skater names. Before she could look around, the two other founding members of "S" skated up to Adam and made a complete stop, one on either side of him.

"Hello again, Adam. Been a while," Cherry said from underneath his mask.

"We thought you might like a two-for-one race tonight," Joe then added as the crowd around them started cheering.

"Would you like to know what we'll be betting on?" Cherry then asks Adam, to which the said man looks at the pink-haired skater and replies. "That's a silly question." Cherry sends a glare at the skater before him, already getting annoyed by his presence. Adam seemed to have noticed that. "Aww. You want to skate together against me and the Little Red Rocket?"

Reki then steps forward before anything else could happen. "Don't you dare! This race is between me and you alone! Quit tryna run!" After hearing him say that, Adam lifts his board and points it to the redhead only inches away from touching his face.

"You said run? To me?" Adam questions. Reki was able to hide his fear as he gulped and stared at Adam dead straight in the eyes, as far as he can see due to the mask. "We have a bet. Or have you forgotten that?" Reki asks.

"Of course not. Looking forward to my prize," Adam then points his skateboard to (Y/n) and Langa. The nine-year-old slightly flinches at the attention suddenly being drawn to her and her friend while Langa just stares at the pro skater with a blank yet curious expression. "I get to skate with the two of you."

At the starting line, Reki and Adam were getting ready to skate. The silence around them doesn't make everything feel at ease. She has a gut feeling that is telling her that something is going to go wrong. But she tries to stay positive as she watches the traffic light go off.

Red

Red

Red

Red

Green

Reki was the first one to take off. It wasn't until a few seconds after that the nine-year-old realized something.

Adam is still standing at the starting line.

With a confused look, she watches as the pro skater takes out a sealed box filled with cigarettes. He lights one as Miya sends a glare in his direction. "He's doing it to mock him," The cat boy says as Adam inhales the cigar and exhales some smoke.

(Y/n)'s eyes go wide as she covers her nose with her hand so she wouldn't breathe in that nasty smell because her mom told her in the past that smoking is bad for her and that she should never do it. She doesn't want to break her mother's promise of not smoking because she's a good girl.

"That's the thing about tobacco. It despises humidity. So I always try to be thoughtful and carry it in an airtight case," Adam starts explaining. "If you expect great taste, you have to put in the proper effort. Joe knows what I'm talking about. Don't ya?"

"Sure," Joe replies with a stern look. "Presentation is key in plating a dish and when planning the courses." (Y/n) can only watch and wonder what the adults were saying as she still has her hand covering her nose.

"You know, I've always found that fascinating. If a plate looks good, your mind will decide it tastes good, too," Adam says as he goes to take another puff of his cigarette, but Langa speaks before he does.

"Is this about Reki?" he asks, which gets (Y/n)'s attention after hearing her friend's name. Adam smiles devilishly as he looks away from Langa. "Perhaps," the pro skater says.

Adam takes another puff of his cigarette and exhales some smoke. "Oh, so yummy. I don't get to smoke during work. But here..." he starts saying as he has his arms out with his cigar in one hand. "Here I'm free! I can do anything!"

And with that, Adam now holds his cigar in his mouth as he picks up his board and dashes past the starting line. In a swift move, he throws his skateboard ahead of him and jumps onto it, gaining more speed when doing so.

(Y/n)'s eyes go wide as she uncovers her nose and stares at the Matador of Love do his thing. "Oh, snap! He's fast," She says to herself. Everyone around in "S" who is either watching the race on the big screen or on the sidelines started cheering for Adam.

(Y/n)'s POV

Looking up at the big screen, I see that Adam has caught up with Reki. It looked as if it was easy for him. Now he connected his skateboard with Reki's and holds his hand before he could fall off when he lost his balance.

I noticed that a corner was coming up, and that started to worry me. If I was in Reki's situation, I probably would have the same traumatized look his face is expressing right now. After making a turn on the side ramps, they skate into a straightaway.

'Oh, snap! How is reki going to get out of this?' I think to myself as the two skaters are skating to another corner on the track. I almost let out a shriek when I saw Adam push Reki toward the ground. But before my friend could hit the hard surface, Adam grabs onto his hand and uses his other hand to skin against the rocky track, causing sparks to fly into the air. Hearing Reki scream from the screen causes my heart rate to speed up.

'He's going too far! He could hurt Reki at any moment!' I say to myself in my head. Wanting to do something about it, I pull on Langa's sleeve to get his attention, to which he does look down at me. "Langa, this is getting out of hand. We have to do something," I tell him.

Langa seemed to agree with me as he nodded in response. He looks around for something, but I don't know what he's looking for. I then see his eyes land on a motorcycle standing by the fence. But before he could go to it, he looks back up at the screen one last time, seeing how terrified his friend looks.

"... .... ... ...!" Langa says something in Japanese and then took off towards the motorcycle. Processing what he was doing for a quick second, I follow his exact move and run to the bike. I heard Miya yell something at us, but I couldn't understand what he was trying to tell us. Once Langa gets on the bike, I hop on behind him. He revs the engine and drives off as a guy tries to stop us from taking the motorcycle. It was probably his bike in the first place, but not anymore... Just kidding. We'll probably return it in the end.

As Langa was driving the motorcycle down the track, he also had a little monitor on the handles that showed the whole race. Looking over his shoulder, I see that Adam is no longer holding onto Reki like how he was before and is now ahead of him. Reki looked like he was slowing down like he was giving up on the race right then and there.

The grip I had with my arms wrapped around Langa's waste tightens as I see him do that because I don't want him to give up that easily. "Come on, Reki. You can do this. Just look for the fun in skating," I whisper, hoping that some sense could be put in his head. And as if he heard my words of advice, I see a smile form on his face through the monitor.

He starts saying something, but I could barely understand what is being said through the little screen. But nonetheless, he looks ready to destroy Adam.

I watch as Reki gains more speed which is enough to pass Adam. Adam was too busy to notice that he passed him that easily, but that wasn't until he turned his head and saw him. I was getting excited for him, but that soon faded when I realized that he wasn't slowing down, which kind of confused me because there was a corner coming up.

"Langa, he isn't slowing down!" I tell the one driving the bike as he doesn't take his eyes off of the screen, which surprises me because he must have a lot of skill to drive without looking at what's in front of him. "Don't worry. I think he knows what he's doing," Langa tells me in response.

Hoping that he was right, I just look back at the screen and watch the whole thing happen. Right as the turn came up, Reki pulled an ollie and landed on the inner bump of the track while using the side of the board to do so-- 'Wait! Did he just...?'

I let out a giggle as I realize something. "Reki pulled off the rail slide!" I say with stars in my eyes. At this point, I was standing up on the seat with my arms wrapped around Langa's shoulders as I watch the screen. Langa smiles after what he saw and says something in Japanese, probably complimenting our friend.

Langa speeds up on the motorcycle we were on to try and get to the two beefers who were racing. Looking back at the screen, I notice that Adam was gaining up on Reki. Neither of them was slowing down now that I realize that another corner was coming up on the track. And what I saw next shocked me.

Adam pulled a Casper slide on the inner side of the track. 'What the...? That's one of the hardest tricks for me to pull off. How was he able to do that?' I ask myself in my head. The two skaters made it past the turn and are now at a straightaway. I could hear people from the monitor chanting Adam's name, which made me think he was going to do something.

But before I could question any further, I see a smirk spread across Adam's face, which made me wonder what he was going to do. 'Adam, whatever you are planning on doing, don't you dare hurt my friend,' I think in a threatening way.

The next thing you know, I'm here watching as Adam lifts the nose of his board off of the ground and pulls a 180. After doing so, he slams the nose of his board down on the ground as he skates toward Reki. But what really surprised me is that he's doing all of this while going uphill.

'Wait, is this...?' "Is that the Love Hug you were talking about, Langa?" I question as I saw his facial expression. He was just as shocked as me. "I believe it is," he replies back, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

I see the expression on Reki's face after I look back at the screen. His face showed an expression of horror and terror. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. 'Why isn't Reki doing something? Why is he just standing there on his skateboard? Is the Love Hug really that terrifying?'

The space between the two skaters was getting smaller, which freaked me out even more. Reki seemed to be stable while standing on his skateboard, but that didn't last long because he lost balance, causing him to fall back and land hard on the ground, which propels him forward.

I was able to hear the thud of his back against the ground from the monitor, which made me flinch. But now I'm here looking at the screen with my eyes wide. After looking up at what was in front of me and Langa, I realize that we were able to see the two about a mile ahead of us. But now Reki is tumbling forward on the ground.

"Reki!" Langa and I shout his name as the motorcycle gains more speed.

3rd POV

The two friends pass by Adam to get to their now injured friend who is lying on the ground with blood dripping down his forehead. Just as the bike was starting to slow down, (Y/n) jumps off of the bike, ran to her friend, and went on her knees once she was in arm's reach.

"Reki?" (Y/n) says as tears threaten to spill out from her eyes. Reki was able to lift his head up a bit to look at the nine-year-old. "Hey, (Y/n). I'm sorry I didn't win," he tells her as more blood drips off from Reki's head. The girl knew he was apologizing, so she shook her head and went to hug his lying form, being careful to not hurt him even more when doing so.

"Don't apologize. It wasn't your fault," (Y/n) says as a few tears roll down her cheeks, so she rubs her face against Reki's sweater to wipe them away. When that happens, Langa is already on the scene.

"Reki! Can you hear me?" he asks as he kneels down beside his friend, which causes the redhead to shift his attention to the snowboarder. "Sorry. I didn't win," Reki tells Langa. "That doesn't matter!" Langa then tells Reki as (Y/n) sits back and wipes her eyes with the sleeve of her (2/f/c) sweater.

"Oh my. The main course has arrived~" A far too familiar voice was heard from behind Langa and (Y/n). The two turn around and look up at the Matador of Love who just so happened to stop by. "Hello, Little Langa and my little birdie. We meet again. I'm overjoyed~"

(Y/n)'s eyes are wide as she looks up at the masked man. Even though the nine-year-old couldn't understand what the pro skater was saying, she has never felt so terrified in her life...

Because she knows that...

She's next in line.