3rd POV

The sound of a hospital door opening catches everyone's attention. After taking Reki to the hospital, (Y/n), Langa, Shadow, and Miya wonder if the injury is severe. So hearing the door open and seeing Reki walk out into the hallway made them jump to their feet. Especially (Y/n). She was worried to death about him.

"I've got two weeks for a full recovery," Reki explains as he looks at his broken arm. He also had a bandage wrapped around his head from the bleeding when he landed on the ground. Nonetheless, the boy was able to smile as he looks up at his friends. "But there's no brain damage!"

All of the boys let out a sigh of relief, which tells (Y/n) that Reki was okay and not that severely injured. She does the same as she sits down on the seat beside Miya, who also slumps down as well.

"Glad it wasn't anything more. Hope you know you're lucky," the cat boy says just as Reki walks in his direction. "I'm so sorry, Miya. I didn't mean to let you down," the redhead tells him, but Miya only brushes him off. "Oh, I'm not surprised at all. I told you, no slime can beat the final boss." Right as Miya says that he stands up from his sitting position and starts to walk off down the hallway.

But he then stops in his tracks as he continues to talk. "But whatever. At least it's not my fault you looked like a fool out there."

"What'd you say?" Reki asks the boy, which causes Langa to look at his redheaded friend with a blank-faced expression. "He said you looked cool out there," The snowboarder said. After hearing this, Miya takes a few backward steps until he is standing in between the two teenagers and then glares up at Langa.

"I didn't say anything like that!" the cat boy spat as smoke was fuming from him in anger. "Are you sure that's not what you said?" Langa questions as (Y/n) gets up and stands next to the light-blue-haired boy with a curious look on her face as she looks up at him and Miya. The only thing Reki could do was lightly laugh with a smile plastered on his face.

The sound of Shadow's voice broke the silence and tension between the kids. "I hate to break up a catfight, but your friends here are next up against Adam. They've got work to do." Right after he said that Reki looked down as if he was internally blaming himself for getting his two friends into this mess.

"I'm the worst. I should've never pulled the two of you into this. I'm sorry," the redhead said as he looks at (Y/n) and Langa. (Y/n), once again, knew he was apologizing for losing, and she didn't blame him. She knows that she and Langa are up to race with Adam, but she'll make sure that she'll win for her friend. Especially after Adam put him in the hospital.

"Don't apologize, Reki. It's not your fault," Langa said.

(Y/n) goes up to Reki and hugs him, also making sure that she doesn't put pressure on his broken arm while doing so. Reki looks down at the girl with a confused look. "We'll win for you, Reki," She tells him. But right after she said that she felt a chill run down her spine.

It confused her why she felt that. She was acting all confident, but then it was as if that confidence faded away. 'What was that? Why did my confidence disappear all of a sudden?'

All the while, Langa translated what the nine-year-old said to Reki. The redhead then places his non-injured hand on the girl's head as she buries her face in the boy's side. As much as he wants to believe her reassurance towards him, he doesn't want his two friends to get badly hurt like him.

Even if it means they have to back down on the race.

Timeskip

(Y/n)'s POV

The next morning, I decided to head to the skatepark, which is where I'm going right now. The only thing that was on my mind was the race me and Langa are going to have with Adam. I don't just want to race him because of what he's done to Reki, but I also want to do this to help me out.

I really enjoy skating and I feel that I belong at "S." At first when I moved to Japan, I felt alone, especially after Mom died. But knowing that there's a place where people like me do the things that I do, I feel I've changed quite a lot.

I've been outgoing even though I never really talked with anybody else. But look where going out has got me. I now have friends who care for me and I feel that I can go to them whenever I need to. Even though I am not a hundred percent comfortable telling them about my past and my secrets, the only thing I have to do is wait for a good time to tell them.

I make it to the skatepark after a few more seconds of thinking to myself. Making a full stop at the center of the park, I let out a sigh as I place my skateboard down on the ground. The race Reki did against Adam played in my head for a quick second. I remember that trick Adam pulled at that one corner on the track.

"How was Adam able to do that Casper Slide?" I lift my foot and place it on my board as I start rocking it back and forth. "Even I'm not able to pull a trick like that."

Now that I stop and think about it, it doesn't seem like a hard trick to do. All there is to it is flipping the board upside down and balancing it on the back edge of the board. If it's like doing a rail slide...

"Then I could totally do it."

Going on one side of the park, I ready myself as if I was getting ready at the starting line of "S." Taking a deep breath and then exhaling, I kick my foot against the ground to gain speed. Once I have the speed that I need, I head straight to the half-pipe on the other side of the park.

If I'm able to pull a rail slide on the bump before the ramp, then I could do the Casper Slide there as well. Once I was at a good distance, I do an ollie, making sure that my board is flipped and the wheels are facing upward. I thought I was going to do it, but once my feet made contact with my board, I immediately lost balance just as it touched the ground.

I fall and land hard on my side with a thud. It hurt, but I brush off the pain and sat up. "Oh, man!" I pout as I get up and grab onto my skateboard.

"Again."

2nd attempt: Fail

"Again."

3rd attempt: Fail

"Again."

4th attempt: Fail

"Again."

.

.

.

18th attempt: Fail

"Dangit!"

I sit up once again as I feel a light stinging pain on my right elbow. Looking down, I see a scrape on that spot on my arm. It looked fresh, so I must have gotten it when I fell after all of those attempts.

After a few more seconds of staring, I heard the sound of a kid laughing in the distance. Looking up, I see a little girl walking happily with her mom and dad. The kid looked younger than me and was wearing a cute little blue shirt and plain black shorts that expressed the happiness she had after every skip she did. She shares the same long, black hair as her mom, but I could tell that she shares her father's green eyes.

Seeing her smile along with her parents made me remember the smile I had whenever I was with my mom when she was still alive. A frown appeared on my face, knowing I wouldn't get to see her anymore. Looking back up at the happy family, I see the father pick up his daughter and put her on his shoulders. He holds onto her legs so that she wouldn't fall as the daughter's hands rest on top of her dad's head.

The way he smiled at her made me smile a bit. 'Huh. I wonder what it looks like when my dad smiles,' I thought to myself but then stopped in realization. 'Wait... My dad is still out there.' A sudden hope of finding my dad then filled up inside of me. Looking up, I smile brightly just as the family leaves my sight.

"I will find my dad! No matter how long it will take! Yeah!"

Timeskip

After a few hours, Reki and Langa finally got out of school. At the skate shop, where both of my friends work, I was helping Langa feed the little fennec fox, Sketchy, as he waits patiently for his food.

Reki wasn't there for some reason, which made me wonder where he was. Manager Oka was talking with Langa earlier today, I don't know what about it, so he must have told Langa where Reki must be. But I'll probably ask Langa later or forget about it and wait until Reki does get back and not worry about it.

Right now, Langa was getting the bag of food as I was petting the cute little creature, making him purr in pleasure. I always loved pets. They make me happy.

"(Y/n), can you get the bowl, please?" he tells me as he motions for the bowl on the far side by Sketchy's little dog house. I nod in response as I slide over on my knees and pick up the little dog bowl.

After grabbing it, I slide back and extend my right arm out to him so that he could grab it from me. But right as his fingers touched it, he noticed something on my arm. His head tilted a bit with a confused look as he uses his other hand to grab onto it. This caught me off guard, so this caused me to shift a bit forward so that he could see what he needed to see.

"What happened here?" Langa asks me, not taking his eyes off what he was looking at. So, full of curiosity, I look at what he was seeing and saw the scrape that I got earlier today at the skatepark.

With my eyes widened a bit, I retrieve my arm back with a slightly nervous look. "Um, I tripped and fell at the skatepark earlier today," I answer as I look down.

Without saying anything else, Langa gets ups real quick and goes to the back of Oka's desk to get something. After kneeling and standing back up, he makes his way back to me with a first aid kit. He opens it up and rummages in there for a bit before taking out rubbing alcohol and a bandaid.

Realizing what he was doing, I extend my right arm to him so that he can see the scrape. He first applied the rubbing alcohol, which burned a little, but I managed to get through the pain. He then starts the process of putting the bandaid over the wound as he talks. "You went to the skatepark again? All by yourself?" he asks me, to which I nod in response.

"Yeah," I plainly say once the bandaid was fully over my wound. I watch as Langa stands up and goes behind the desk to put the first aid kit away.

Feeling a presence beside me, I look down and see Sketchy sitting there as he observes the bandaid and then sniffs it out of curiosity. After giving a small growl, he stands up on his hind legs, extending his paw against me to have stability, and licks it, hoping that it'll heal fast. I smile at this as I pet him as a way of saying thanks.

Noticing that Langa hasn't come back from behind the desk yet, I look up but don't see him. Wondering what was taking him so long, I stand up and walk over to the back of the desk. I take a peek and see the boy still on his knees, looking as if he was deep in thought.

"Langa?" I question, snapping him back to reality. He looks up at me with a curious yet confused look. "Are you okay? You've been down there for quite some time," I point out the obvious, making the teenager quickly shake his head.

"I'm fine. I was just thinking about something," he says as he stands back up and goes over to the other side of the desk with me following behind him. We both get back down on our knees as Sketchy patiently waits for his food, looking as if he was starting to get a little impatient.

Looking back at Langa, he was thinking again as he stares off into space, but I noticed his facial expression showed one of worry. 'Okay, something is going on in his head and he just doesn't want to tell me.'

"Langa," I say to him so that he snaps out of it again. Realizing that he was staring at nothing, he gets Sketchy's food bowl and starts to open the dog food. "Sorry," he apologizes without taking his eyes off his task.

As much as I wanted to believe that he was okay, I can still tell that something is on his mind and he can't stop thinking about it. "Is there something on your mind that's worrying you? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Just know that I'm right here if you ever need to vent to someone," I tell him.

The boy stops what he was doing and lets out a sigh as he closes his eyes, but he speaks after doing so. "You're right. I am just a little worried. After you told me that you went to the skatepark by yourself, it worries me," he tells me, which gets me confused a bit as I lift an eyebrow.

"But, I'm totally fine being by myself in public. It's completely normal for me," I tell him with a shrug. Langa breathes in and then exhales before he replies again.

"I know it may be normal for you. It's just that..." The boy pauses for a moment, looking a bit hesitant for a few seconds before looking at me. "Look, I don't want to scare you or anything, but I want you to know what's going on around here." I nod after what he said, motioning for him to continue as a look of curiosity is shown on my face. "A few days ago, Oka told me and Reki that if kids who don't speak Japanese are seen without a parent in public will be sent back to their homes where they belong. And knowing that you go to the skatepark by yourself makes it a higher chance of others getting the wrong idea."

My expression changed to a shocked look as it felt like my heart nearly stopped. Talk about trying not to scare me, now he's getting me all worried. "S-so..." I start with my voice sounding a bit shaky. "If someone was to find out that I don't speak the language here and I'm not with my parents, then I'll be sent back to my old home?" I ask, to which Langa nods in response with a blank expression.

I look down with a horrified look on my face. 'This isn't good. If I'm sent back, then I won't be able to find my dad and I will probably be sent to an orphanage and end up all alone. I don't want that to happen!' My facial expression then softens a bit as an idea pops up in my head. 'Wait, if I can continue to practice and learn more Japanese words on my phone, then maybe I'll be okay with staying here!... But I don't know how long that'll take for me to be fluent in that language.'

"So, please, (Y/n)," Langa says, which causes me to look at him. "If you were to go out again without either Reki or me, ask your mom to go with you. I don't want you to end up getting sent back to America when you have a family member living here. Also, I hardly believe that things will be the same without you."

I had to stop the tears from filling my eyes at the sudden thought of my mom. I miss her so much to the point where I would do anything to see her again. If only Langa knew the truth, I just don't feel like saying anything yet. Without saying anything, I nod before responding to him. "Okay, Langa. I promise I won't go out to the skatepark by myself anymore," I tell the teen, which causes him to smile at me.

A sudden bark snaps both Langa and me out of our thoughts. Looking down, we see Sketchy sitting there as he glares at us, starting to get impatient with getting his food. Langa realizes that and starts to serve Sketchy's food in his little bowl.

All the while, the thought of Adam was roaming around in my mind. It scares me that Langa and I are going to be racing him, but at the same time, it'll make me feel better about myself when I beat him... Somehow. I don't see why everyone loves him. He is a bad man deep down inside. He injures other skaters and everyone doesn't seem to be worried about that.

But, then again, you could practically do anything you want in a race. And that's what is getting me nervous. He could easily break me in half if he wanted to.

Looking up at Langa, I see that he already served the dog food to Sketchy, who is eagerly scarfing down his food within seconds. It makes me wonder if Langa is feeling nervous, too.

"Hey, Langa?" I say, which causes the said boy to look down at me with a curious look on his face as he waits for me to continue. "Are you... worried about racing Adam?" I ask, trying not to sound too worried.

Langa didn't respond right away, but he soon did. "Not really," He replies to me. He then looks back down as if he was deep in his thoughts. Letting out a sigh, he speaks again. "Okay. Maybe I am a little worried."

Sketchy, who was once eating in front of the teenager, stops eating and looks up at him with a non-interested expression. He then starts to drag his food bowl into his little dog's house with him. I found it funny, so I let out a little laugh.

But right after I did, I hear the door to the shop open, which gets my and Langa's attention. Langa says something in Japanese, but once we saw who was standing there at the entrance, my eyes widen a slight bit at the sight of Miya and Shadow. Shadow is in his skating outfit while Miya was wearing a black and orange striped shirt, which made me wonder even more why they were here.

Timeskip

So it turns out that Shadow and Miya took Langa and me to a skatepark. Not the usual skatepark I and the boys would always go to, a different one. They were showing us how to do that one Caper Slide trick Adam pulled during his race against Reki.

Langa was able to get it down on the first try, which surprised me. I remembered falling a bunch of times when I tried doing it a few hours ago, so it's no surprise that I fell a couple of times.

After I fell off my skateboard for the fifth time, I was starting to give up right then and there, which was embarrassing, to say the least. 'This is dumb. I can't pull it off like how Langa can.' I snap out of my thoughts when I see Langa's gloved hand extending out in front of me. Looking up at the boy with a confused look, I could see the amount of faith he has in me in his smile.

"Here. Let me help you," He tells me, which shocks me. Throughout my time here in Japan, no one has ever volunteered to help me. Lifting my hand, I place it on top of Langa's as he then helps me to my feet. "I can see where you're struggling. When you land on your board, try putting the balance on both of your feet. If you put more weight on the back of the board, you have to put the same amount of weight on the nose of your board."

Taking all of that into consideration, I decided to try it out again. After grabbing my board, I take a few steps away from the halfpipe and place my board back down on the ground when I'm at a good distance to get some good speed.

Placing my foot on the board, I use my other foot to kick off and gain enough momentum as a start. Once I was only a few inches away from the ramp, I do an ollie and flip the board upside down as I have the back of the board land on the bump before the ramp. Remembering what Langa had told me, I made sure to put equal weight on both of my feet. As I was sliding across the little skatepark, I wobbled a bit and was about to fall.

"Oh, snap!" I yell out. And out of instinct, I flip my board back up and off the bump, using a quick millisecond to make sure the wheels were facing downward. I land on it once again and skate a few inches away from the ramp before coming to a complete stop.

I take a few deep breaths as I take in what just happened. Sure, I was a bit wobbly and almost fell, but I still did it. With a laugh, I look in Langa's direction with a huge smile as the said boy was running in my direction. I run to him as I had my arms spread out.

"Langa, did you see that?! I did it!" I yell as I jump and hug him as he twirls me around. "I saw! That was amazing!" he tells me as he sets me back down and pats my head.

I look to the side where Miya and Shadow are and realize that Reki had just arrived at the skatepark. He must have seen me do the Casper Slide because he had a shocked look expressed on his face. But, looking more to the side, I also noticed that someone else was standing there on the side of the skatepark.

It's a man with long, pink hair and is wearing glasses. I could feel his golden eyes staring right into my soul, which kind of sent a shiver down my spine. 'Why is this man staring at me like that? And why does he look so-- Wait, is that Cherry Blossom?!' After realizing who this guy was, my eyes widen a bit in shock. This made me wonder one thing...

'What is he doing here?'

3rd POV

Kaoru had taken the group of skaters to the one place he knew he can get the help he needs for Langa and (Y/n). Entering Sia La Luce, this catches the green-haired chef's attention as the youngsters admire everything that is displayed inside the restaurant.

"Ain't this a classy joint? I could bring the boss someday," Shadow says to himself.

"Is there anything here without tomatoes?" Miya asks as he looks at what's ahead of him.

"They serve any poutine?" Langa asks with an emotionless expression plastered on his face.

"Grow up!" Reki tells his friend with an annoyed look before he looks in front with a smile. "I want pizza!"

The only thing (Y/n) could do is stare with her skateboard clutched close to her chest, almost as if she would lose it if she was to let go.

"Have a seat wherever you would like," Kaoru tells the group, which confuses the annoyed chef behind the counter. "I don't remember you asking to use my restaurant!" Kojiro yells at the pink-haired man, to which the said man looks at his childhood friend with an unfazed look. "These two think they'll win against Adam," Cherry briefly explains as he points his closed fan in (Y/n) and Langa's direction.

Kojiro first looks at Langa almost with a disappointed look. "You were there. You watched him skate. Don't be an idiot," he tells the snowboarder. His attention then shifts to the only girl in the group. He lets out a sigh, knowing that she was just a kid and probably thought nothing of it. The said girl does nothing much but holds her skateboard closer to her as she stares back at the man, getting a bit defensive about what he was going to say.

But before anything could leave the six-pack skater's mouth, the sound of Langa's stomach growling catches everyone's attention. Looking down, Reki turns to his friend with an unsatisfied look on his face. "I told you," t redhead says, but his eyes go wide after hearing his own stomach growling, which was then followed by Miya's and (Y/n)'s stomachs. The two younger skaters blush at the fact that they were hungry and haven't eaten dinner yet.

Out of nowhere, Shadow slams his hand on the counter. "Five ramen bowls!" He declares.

"This is an Italian joint!" Kojiro clarifies with an annoyed look on his face.

After everyone was done eating the food that Kojiro served them, Kaoru was going to show the clueless skaters how Adam's trick works. "Now I'll demonstrate how the Love Hug works," the AI skater says as he uses Miya's board to ride on. All the while, Kojiro was complaining about why Kaoru was using him in this experiment as he stood a few feet away from him.

"Start with maximum acceleration toward the finish line. Using a spin, do a 180 with a minimal turning radius," While Kaoru was explaining, he demonstrated by skating forward away from Kojiro with low acceleration and then pulled a 180, and was now going towards the green-haired skater. "And this is the important part. Right after the 180, bring the nose down hard. That gives you the momentum to continue uphill," he continues to explain as he slams the nose of the skateboard down against the floor. "The sudden change in relative speed is key. That's what makes it seem as though he appeared in front of you out of nowhere."

Looking in front of him, Kaoru slowly comes to a complete stop barely touching his childhood friend with his arms stretched out. "Hello," he greets him with an emotionless expression. An irk appears on Kojiro's head as he mumbles, "You're too close."

The whole time Kaoru was explaining, (Y/n) had her phone out and had audio-recorded the pro skater's speech, which then translated everything he said into English. She didn't know what to think. The trick looked very simple, but she could see the complexity behind it.

"Insane," Reki mumbles to himself with astonishment written all over his face.

"It's pretty easy once you know the trick," Miya then states with his cat-like smile.

"That said, the live race damages things," Kaoru starts to explain as he picks up Miya's skateboard and turns to look at the group sitting in their seats. "For the illusion to work, your opponent has to be right in front of you at all times."

"You can't hesitate," Langa says out loud, which gets everyone's attention. The teenager was looking down towards the ground but his eyes were a bit wide out of realization. "And can't slow down. It all happens in that one instant."

(Y/n) had used her phone to translate what Langa said, and reading what he said made her feel a bit on edge. You'll never know if Adam will pull a trick like that on you during a race because he's not easy to read off of like a book. The girl looks down as she thinks to herself. 'There has to be a weak point to the Love Hug, right? Almost every trick has a weak point.'

Reki, on the other hand, smiles at a sudden thought in his mind. "So wait, that's all there is to the Love Hug then?" he asks out loud. The trick seemed easy to him, but he was too blind to see how someone reacts to the trick.

"Hey, Reki." The sound of Kojiro's voice filled the redhead's ears, which causes him to look up. But once he did, he saw a fist flying towards him at feel speed. Out of reflex, he flinches back as he closes his eyes. He was waiting for the impact, but it never came. "That's your name, right?" the green-haired man asked as Reki opens his eyes, only to see the pro skater's fist had stopped a few inches away from his face. "Your body reacts if it knows what's coming. It's not an easy move to deflect," Kojiro explains to Reki.

The redhead slumps down after hearing what Kojiro said. "Then, what can they do? We just confirmed that Adam's a fierce skater with super-human skills." Reki turns his head to look at (Y/n), who was looking at the floor almost with a determined look on her face. As much as he wants her determination to lead her to success, he can't stop to think about the possible and harsh outcomes that can occur during the race.

'It's my fault for bringing them into this. They know what could go wrong if they skated against Adam. But yet... why doesn't she look so scared?'