F-Zero: Seppuku 3/3 - Lap 60 (Part 2)

:: Engelland High School, Mysteria; 12 years ago ::

Behind the desk of a science room sat Mr. Scharnofski—an educator in math and science. As lunchtime had arrived, he found himself grading paperwork for his students. A stern look had been planted on his face, and only a stronger one formed as a knocking was sounded at his door.
“Yes, hello?” he answered without looking up.
There, a young fairly obese 13 year old girl stood with sad eyes at his door. She had a small red skirt, a wool black shirt, and a pair of shiny black shoes with long white socks. Rather than the long flowing blonde hair she would later become accustomed to, she had the signature ponytail, much like Abigail's.
“Mr. Scharnofski...”
He raised an eyebrow and looked up at the girl, then sighed, “I can't give you any more accommodations in math, Chiya. You already have everything you are permitted to use for the average special ed. Student.”
Chiya let out a slight gasp, then lowered her eyelids sadly, “That's not it at all...”
“Then how can I help you?”
Chiya approached his desk and dropped her notebook down with a frown, “If I don't at least get a D in your science class, I might not be allowed to practice for junior varsity soccer...”
He swished his hand at the girl, “Then study better, stop dozing off during my lectures, and stop staring at boys.”
Chiya blushed, “I- I don't-” she lowered her eyelids and dipped her head down, “Well, I can't help it. What's a fat marshmallow like me supposed to do about my urges for love?”
“I'm not giving you a D because-”
“I- I don't want to cheat, though, I want help!”
“Help?”
She nodded and spun her notebook around to show him, “My friend told me that if I can at least get five of these questions right, I should at least get a D- on this assignment. If I could just do a little better than that-”
“Why not go for an A+?”
Chiya frowned again and looked down at the floor, Scharnofski closed his eyes and sighed very intensely. But decided to put his glasses back on, regardless. He looked down at the assignment Chiya was working on, then nodded.
“It's not that hard, Chiya. What is collision?”
She returned a very panicked look, “I don't know! All of those multiple choice answers sound fitting!”
He raised a finger up and nodded, “Well, then pay attention while I tell you. Because if you learn one piece of vocab, you can narrow down the other answers. Turn a 25% chance of guessing into a 33%.”
Chiya pulled a chair over in front of his desk and nodded with watery eyes, “Okay, so what is collision?”
He sighed again, then tapped his chin while thinking, but it only took him seconds to think of a good example, “Think about a soccer ball.” Chiya already smiled, “If a soccer ball were to be hit by a balloon at an immense speed, nothing would really happen, since the balloon lacks proper mass to become effective.”
Chiya looked down at her notebook and began to write, “Okay.”
“But if your foot were to hit the soccer ball, it would go flying, because your foot is stronger than the balloon. And the faster and stronger you hit the ball, the more of an effect it will have. Now, if you were to throw a much heavier object on top of the soccer ball, the ball would break, because the object has more mass. But if the ball had fallen on the heavier object, it's unlikely to have an effect.”
Chiya dropped her jaw slightly and blinked at him, “So, the heavier the object, plus the speed of that object, is what makes collision stronger?”
He nodded, “The pen may be mightier than the sword, however, the sword will always be able to crush the pen.”
Chiya licked her lips slowly before sticking a chocolate bar into her mouth, “I see...”
The teacher faintly smiled at her and nodded, “Now, how about inertia?”


:: End of flashback ::

As Chiya soared, her mouth remained slightly dropped in distraction. She blinked once and looked back down at the parked Spark Moon. Then with fierce eyes, she nodded.
“Collision...”
Rather than gliding down with the airbrakes, Chiya decided to pull off what would likely go on to be her craziest stunt yet. She proceeded to dive down towards the track, but without her airbrakes. Earl was too distracted trying to figure out what Princia was doing to speak or notice Chiya's insane stunt. Princia waited patiently for Chiya to come down with the other racers, however, she had soon realized that something was wrong. Chiya was not gliding, as it clearly appeared as though she were intending to dive straight down. Princia's eyes briefly widened in shock before her jaw dropped down.
Chiya narrowed her eyes and targeted Princia's machine whilst plummeting down. She was now going well over 2,000 km/h, but had turned on her airbrakes. Regardless of doing this, her speed remained at a steady +2,000 km/h.
“Hold still, soccer ball...”
Princia immediately stomped her foot down on the accelerator, but the reaction time of the stomping was not quick enough. Chiya had at the last moment, tilted herself back up, thus literally stomping down on the Spark Moon.
Princia let out a very loud howl as her machine was immediately smashed like a soda can. Fortunately, Princia's cockpit frame kept her from being crushed, however, the rocket fire of the Purring Kitten severely burned her leg.
Earl and Abigail both gasped loudly.
“Chiya!”
“Chiya!”
Chiya was passed by Blood Falcon, Captain Falcon, Mighty Gazelle, and Lieutenant Seppuku, but was at least able to tag onto the back of Captain Falcon with a machine now low on energy. Chiya looked everywhere with a frantic expression, but soon came to the ultimate realization. Princia's machine was smashed beyond repair. It didn't matter how much money or engineers Princia had—the Spark Moon was permanently destroyed.
She exhaled and wiped her forehead as she simply continued on into the final lap. “Well, that's knocked off my to-do list...”
The F-Zero commissioner himself had hurried his way up to the window of his booth, suddenly catching himself amazed by what had just happened. Several of his committee officials accompanied him to the window, the massive black smoke at the end of the jump made it clear that something big had indeed happened.
“What!? Who was destroyed!?” He whipped his head around and gritted his teeth, “Was Chiya taken out!?”
One of the technicians turned with a panicked look, “No, it was Chiya, she just destroyed Princia Ramode's machine!”
The Commissioner grunted loudly, then narrowed his eyes angrily. He slammed his hand against the window and growled, “Damn, there goes my money train...”
Seppuku continued to race, but was constantly looking back in amazement. He had no idea what had happened, but the fate of Princia was suddenly all he cared about. Even without a combat module, Chiya had clearly done much more damage to Princia than she possibly could have with one. He was anxious to know what happened.
But regardless, Chiya was still faced with one issue. She was now low on energy and had some serious catching up to do if she had any hope of clinching the Grand Prix.
Seppuku and Mighty Gazelle once again found themselves waging war with one another, but Seppuku was clearly much more aggressive. After delivering such a destructive end to Princia's F-Zero season, even Gazelle found himself wanting to distance himself from Chiya. Until the race was over, not many would know what had happened at the jump.
Mighty Gazelle took a quick slash towards Seppuku, and in return was hit with a spin attack. Gazelle was flung at the safety railing and fell behind Chiya, at long last, reuniting the two companions. Seppuku was no fool, though. Princia was out, and Chiya was still in. He was going to do everything within his power to try and keep Chiya up high in the ranks.
Blood Falcon looked back and grinded his teeth as he soon found himself surrounded by Captain Falcon, Seppuku, and Chiya—all foes. Everyone hit the boost pad and came flying into the restoration area. Once again, Seppuku decided to boost through the pad rather than fully filling his tank of energy. Chiya did not do the same, as she envisioned herself desperately needing the extra energy as time came by.
Chiya boosted after Seppuku quickly with a quirked mouth, now fully determined and inspired to win. Blood Falcon was now being bat around like a pinball, as both Seppuku and Captain Falcon forced him into a tough spot. Chiya boosted yet again to seize the opportunity, but ultimately decided not to place herself too close to the battle.
Dr. Stewart made his way up towards Mighty Gazelle, but was not viewing him as an enemy. The Golden Boar simply passed Gazelle and went on in hopes to catch the final lap battle. The simple fact of it was, if Blood Falcon were to retire from this race—Chiya had a 80% chance of winning the final race. The overall scores would be too much in her favor at that point to possibly lose. Blood Falcon was well aware of this, but fortunately, as always, had a dirty trick up his sleeve.
He continued to let the racers bat him around for a few moments, which ultimately drained about 25% of his energy away through damage. But just before they made the turn into the toes of the track, he switched open the special red button in his machine—the same one everyone continuously forgot that he had.
Chiya kept her distance, but was momentarily shocked as Blood Falcon unleashed his special spin attack, as they all made the turn. Seppuku and Captain Falcon were instantly blown away and forced to run into the safety railings, leaving Chiya to pursue him into second place.
Earl stomped his foot down and growled, “Abby! How much energy does he have left after using that cheating method of attack?”
Abigail held up six fingers, “Sixty percent.”
Earl grabbed onto his headset again, “Chiya, Blood Falcon is at sixty percent energy.”
Chiya looked down at her dashboard nervously, “Uh, I still have eighty percent...”
“Alright, just stay behind him and keep your distance. We should save that energy for the final push.”
Chiya made some sharp turns, but gasped as Blood Falcon attempted to spin attack her to death whilst doing so. She swiftly moved to the side and nearly hit the railing, but managed to maintain her position in second. She gritted her teeth, then narrowed her eyes at Blood Falcon.
“Not this time, Blood Falcon. This Grand Prix is mine...”
The evil clone chuckled to himself and looked back at Chiya, “As persistent and annoying as Dark Rose...”
Seppuku was now trailing Chiya and was trying to pass her so that he could take care of Blood Falcon for her. Rather than staying close to Blood Falcon, Chiya surrendered her place in second to Seppuku by slowing down, who then thanked her by boosting right into Blood Falcon. Chiya nodded respectfully to him and made her way out of the turns. The race was nearly over, but things were not going exactly as desired.
Blood Falcon and Seppuku clashed machines one last time, forcing bright sparks into the air. Seppuku and Blood Falcon proceeded to push each other in desperation to intimidate the other, but both went back and forth in a very conflicted battle. The Golden Boar was closely behind Captain Falcon, who was preparing to boost, but refrained from doing so as they approached the jump.
Chiya grabbed her wheel tightly and exhaled, then full of faith, jumped off the ledge and through the thick black smoke of the Spark Moon. Chiya, Seppuku, and Blood Falcon all took a leap with the intention of landing near the same spot. After landing, it would be a very short distance to the finish line. Chiya was ready to use the remainder of her energy in order to land herself in first.
Seppuku landed, followed by Blood Falcon. The two immediately knocked into each other as Chiya landed down next to Blood Falcon's side. Just then, Captain Falcon had boosted up ahead and forced himself next to Blood Falcon. Chiya grunted, but was then faced with the sight of Blood Falcon spin attacking both Seppuku and Captain Falcon aside. Captain Falcon ended up losing control of his machine and crashed into the railing, while Seppuku merely hit the railing yet again, while retaining position in third.
Earl clenched his fists with serious eyes, “This is it, Chiya. Just pull the plug and boost to the finish! Blood Falcon doesn't have nearly enough energy to keep up.”
Seppuku crashed into Blood Falcon once again, desperately trying to break room in for Chiya to win. Full of pride, Chiya smirked and flipped open the boost button with the finish line just ahead.
“Piece of cake!”
She slammed her thumb down and went boosting, thus causing Blood Falcon to grunt loudly. It was evident to him that Chiya was a second or two away from winning the race, so he decided to pull the same trick. With another grin, he mashed his finger down on the red button just as Chiya had begun to pass by.
Gasps were exchanged throughout the entire track as both Chiya and Seppuku were then thrown aside by yet another hurricane spin attack. Both were thrown at the railings, but fortunately, Chiya retained her machine's stability with her energy bar having now been knocked down to red. She grunted loudly and looked up, Seppuku had attempted to catch up to Blood Falcon, but he already passed through the finish line in first—again.
Seppuku then passed through, and finally Chiya. Chiya wasn't depressed by her final ranking, but she was frustrated, and she had but one single word to describe Blood Falcon after such a dirty move.
“Wanker.”
The racers departed. In first place, was Blood Falcon; second place, Lieutenant Seppuku; third place, Chiya Flower; fourth place, Captain Falcon; fifth place, Dr. Stewart; and sixth place, Mighty Gazelle. The race was over, and Chiya had at least managed to retain her overall rank of first place by securing 87 points. But alas, the tide had now turned, as she only topped Blood Falcon by an overall amount of 2 points. For the first time in F-Zero history, the universe was looking at a final race with only two possible winners. Chiya Flower, or Blood Falcon...



Before returning to the private booth to celebrate her fair success, Chiya had one place left to go, as she demanded immediate answers. Inside the personal garage of Princia Ramode, the princess and her pit crew examined what was left of the Spark Moon. The machine had been practically flattened by the sheer weight and force of the Purring Kitten. Princia knew well that her days of racing was at a temporary halt, for now, she was merely seeing if there was anything left intact to scavenge from the wreckage.
She sighed, but only sighed more loudly as the sound of footsteps came from behind. Princia rolled her eyes and dipped her head down without turning.
“Here to gloat?”
Chiya stopped behind Princia and narrowed her eyebrows, but didn't respond until Princia slowly turned towards her. Great surprise had then struck Princia across the face, as she was momentarily not faced with a gloating Chiya, but rather, one that extended her arm. Chiya reached her hand up and looked Princia in the eyes.
“Princia, the truth is, I beat you out of luck today. I'm fortunate enough not to have broken every bone in my body doing what I did.” Chiya extended her hand even further up, not afraid to look Princia in the eyes, “Despite the hardships you've given me this season, I would be honored to shake the hand of such a worthy F-Zero racer.”
Princia continued to bite down on her lip while staring at the blue gloved hand, and for a moment, she herself reached for Chiya's hand. Hesitating to grab Chiya's hand soon came over her, however, as she quickly slapped her hand back down and let out a distressed sigh. Full of shame in both her performance and behavior, Princia collapsed down onto an oil barrel and crossed her arms with watery eyes.
“Alright, I admit it. I don't hate you because of some ethnic or physical difference...” Chiya raised her eyebrows, while still holding her hand up. Princia's eyes continued to slightly glimmer sadly, then she closed them. “The truth is, I'm jealous of you...”
Chiya grunted loudly and gritted her teeth, “Oh boy, Seppuku warned me about this...” she rolled her eyes up with raised lower eyelids, “Uh, I'm not willing to do anything too dirty, but if it really means the world to you, you can squeeze my butt for-”
“It's just not fair, though. Why you? What was wrong with me?”
“Huh?”
Princia slowly dipped her head down and sighed, “Your boyfriend...”
Chiya's eyes shot open, “Earl!?”
“He didn't tell you, did he?”
“Tell me what?” Chiya asked very curiously.
Princia raised her head up and revealed her watery eyes, “Many years ago, while on a goodwill mission to Japan, I had taken a tour to a skiing resort outside Mute City...” she turned her head away from Chiya, “It was there that I met Earl Bendek, seemingly, the perfect heir to my dynasty...”
Chiya gasped, “Yo- you and Earl knew each other!?”
“He was the perfect man. I didn't tell him that I was a princess. But we skiid together, we shared interests, and then...” she closed her eyes and tightly grasped her arms, “He and I kissed a little after such a romantic night...”
Chiya glared, “Oh, he did!?” But ultimately, Chiya exhaled, remembering that Earl was in all actuality, once a player who only wanted to score the lips of women. She blew her bangs up and sighed, “So you and Earl, then...”
“I was in love for the first time, and I so desperately wanted to one day become his wife. But alas, the following day, I had returned to the ski resort...” she closed her eyes, “...and he wasn't there...”
“I- I don't understand, why wouldn't Earl have brought this up with me back when we were in your palace?”
She fake chuckled and turned away from her again, “He probably didn't even recognize me, like all terrible men. And after I learned that Earl was not only your lover, but one that stayed loyal to you, fresh wounds had been reopened.” She clenched her fists furiously, “He didn't even try and find me! He  clearly just led me on, thank God I didn't have sex with him!”
Chiya exhaled very loudly in relief and chuckled, “Oh, thank God...” Princia glared at her in response, “Uh, I mean...” Chiya closed her eyes respectfully and nodded, “Look, you're right about Earl. He used to briefly date women for the sport, because he knew that no one would want to marry someone with a history as dark as his...”
Princia's eyes turned into sad watery slits, “But that's what I don't understand. Why you? We had everything in common, why were you the one girl that he stayed with..?” she whispered silently.
Chiya breathed in, then exhaled, “The heart wants what it wants...”
“Well, anyways, that's it. I wanted you to suffer, because I knew it would make Earl suffer...” she sighed again, “But, of course, I was only prolonging the inevitable. Regardless of what could've happened here today, you two would still go on to be happy...”
A heavy silence ensued after leaving off with this. Finally, Princia reached her hand forth and turned her head away from Chiya.
“You've beaten me fair and square. Ms. Flower, I can only offer best wishes that you leave the final race a champion...”
Chiya lowered her eyebrows sadly, but smiled. She immediately grabbed Princia's hand and shook, then patted her back.
“I promise you, Princia, you'll find love again...”
Princia shrugged without looking at her, “Whatever, I'm not looking anymore...”
Chiya stood up and began to walk away, but quickly thought of something. Thinking back to her own experience with love, she knew one thing to be true. With a confident smirk, Chiya turned her head.
“Sometimes, it is when you're not looking, that you come across the love of your life...”
Princia slowly widened her eyes, but still did not turn. Chiya had left the garage, thus ending the cold war between the two.
The F-Zero committee lost their Chiya-Princia Cold War merchandising, but a much bigger game was around the corner. Chiya and Blood Falcon, two neck and neck racers with no other racers close enough in points to beat them. With this final race, there was no doubt that one of the two would win. One was an honorable novice racer with a passion for the sport of F-Zero, the other was a cheating duplicate of yet another honorable racer.
Only one gold trophy was available for the taking...

To be continued...