I honestly feel that this could have been made better but I like it overall
There is probably mistakes so please them out if you find any
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Whenever an animal is in a situation that could lead to death, the brain would stress out and start to forcefully create large amounts of chemicals. It would pump up the blood stream, send out chemicals that would overclock the muscles, and the perception of a person would open up to the extreme. The pain one would feel would get muted to a large degree, almost not being able to feel anything but faint numbness in the affected area.
The person would lock onto the situation, getting tunnel vision as it is figuring out how to solve and escape this situation. It would do everything to live, to survive, even if it would lead to severe injuries.
The reason for this being brought up is because of the racer known as Hayate North, he was someone who feared being forgotten, he had associated being forgotten to death due to the things that had happened in his life. This association has caused the brain of North to correlate death with being forgotten, causing it to assume that it was going to die when North was feeling like he was going to lose, something that he correlates to failure which is connected to being forgotten.
This process has caused his brain to go all out during the race, causing North to do something that he could've done with time.
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.…Copy
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Moments before
'What would Oguri do….' The thoughts of Oguri entered his mind, the feeling of losing this race, losing the expectations of those who cheered for him, for the words that Ego had said. The feeling of despair that was quickly consuming him from the inside out was now enveloping him.
'Why can't I be like her…' The slight voice of his head muttered out, his sight started to be consumed by the darkness of death. The wish that he was strong, the wish to be remembered, to have people look at him like they do her.
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10 Years Ago
A 9 year old Hayate North was laying against the ground, the tapes of his mother were playing on the old T.V of the decrypted home. The static light of the T.V filled the room allowing for someone to see the walls of the home, the vanishing smushed paint was peeling from the walls. Parts of the Wall had cracks that allowed the cold air to come inside, the wood that made up the walls had splinters poking out.
The floor was an old, decaying wood, the creaking of wood being caused by the wind touching the floor. A small puddle was forming in the corners of the room.
A small droplet of water fell from the ceiling, falling to the earth before eventually hitting North's face. North didn't flinch from the sudden touch and wetness that appeared on his face, his eyes focused on the broken picture portrait that was resting on the molding counter.
The glass that would protect the picture had long since cracked, the picture was the cleanest thing in the room yet it was easy to see the small tears on the edges.
The picture itself had the small North from 2 years ago standing beside a woman that was nearly identical to him. She was watching as the North in the picture was running past her, being frozen in time.
North turned away, his eyes glancing at the T.V that was playing the last race of his mother. He remembered when he was 6, watching as his mother raced with all her might but unfortunately losing. The faint victories of her career were few.
Yet there was always someone in the audience cheering for her, cheering for her to continue racing, in the hope for her victories.
But as time flew, the cheers would lessen and lessen, people started to forget her, forgetting of the person they had once cheered for. And on the day of her last race, there was no one cheering for her and no one would remember her, they focused on the winner, completely forgetting about his mother.
He remembered that day clearly, the look of his mothers face as she got 7th. The pain in her face of being forgotten, the pain of her body being taken to the extreme.
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…
…
The pain of her face as she lost her life on the day she was forgotten.
Another drop of water fell onto his face, the sound of something starting to break entering his ears.
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The sound of something starting to break entered his ears, the fear of his own death overwhelmed his mind, the fear of being forgotten by the people around him. The thoughts of Oguri that were filling his mind had been forcefully crushed, the instinctual fear of death taking its place.
The picture of something forever out of his reach seemed to be shattered, the picture that was so far now being closer than it ever has. The sound of glass starting to crack was filling his mind with information that he didn't know yet the instinctual knowledge of it caused his body to move.
A blue aura that was forming around his eyes and legs faintly turned green before being overwhelmed by a dark purple, the dark purple condensed into a singlier point in his eyes. His eyes were squirming around, looking for something to use before it eventually landed on the tired Storm. North watched as Storm was chasing after Araki, his eyes analyzing her to the extreme. It took the smallest information from her, her movements, muscle mass, skills, habits, even the pattern of her feet hitting the ground, it was all being downloaded into his brain.
With the finish line closing in, North had suddenly disappeared, the sound of his footsteps turning fainter by the minute before eventually disappearing. A sudden end of the pressure he had been faintly admitting had caused the others to have a gut wrenching feeling appear.
Stern was the first to notice something amiss. She quickly turned her head with faint panic to where she last heard North but only saw the black haired Storm, and yet there was the feeling of something off, a feeling of wrongness was punctured into her gut. Stern was confused by the feeling she was getting and was trying to find the source of it before suddenly hearing something to her left. Her head turned with lightning reflexes, the panic becoming stronger.
'This must be the source!' She thought to herself as she turned around, only to see nothing there, and like god decided to please her, the answer of her panic had appeared.
She heard the sound of her own footsteps quickly encroaching on her, and with the turn of her head, she found North appearing beside her before passing her.
This was the plan that he had created, he copied the style of Storm, making his own footsteps to fuse into the sound. It had taken a bit to get right, which had caused the feeling of his own to faintly disappear, but when he did get it right, North understood that Stern would be the first one to notice so he decided to target her first.
North would quickly encroach onto her left, before stomping his foot, creating the noise that caught her attention. Then he would use his old style to twist his body and change his direction suddenly, making sure to fuse his footsteps with her own, hiding himself again. The last step was to use the momentum of his twist to push himself forward and pass Stern.
This was the plan he had created to catch up to Araki.
As this happened, Araki was soon to notice the disappearance of North's footsteps, and as she looked around. North did the same thing, but copied the style of Stern to trick Araki that she was still behind him.
North knew that Araki had most likely studied all the racers in the field, he would most likely understand the abilities of Stern Love. This was the reason North knew that Araki wouldn't turn to the direction he was in, because of his trust in his own data.
And when Araki turned to the direction of Storm, learning that the person he believed would be the first to fall out, he would quickly turn his head to where he believed Stern was. Yet the reality he trusted was shattered by the sight of Hayate North.
With Araki being startled by the sight of North, he would use this sudden disconnection to rush forward once more, quickly closing the gap that had once been there.
"HAYATE NORTH HAS SUDDENLY BROKE THROUGH THE WALL THAT WAS STOPPING HIM AND IS NOW QUICKLY CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN HIM AND ARAKI KATSUO!!"
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"Now this is interesting~." the singing voice of Charles broke through the sounds of cheering.
Ego was watching the race with interest, watching the movement of North that had suddenly changed. The faint purple aura that was faintly surrounding North being invisible to him, yet to Charles, it was something that he was watching with a fever.
"He has suddenly gone through a process of evolution, probably from the desperation of losing.." Ego muttered to himself, writing on the clipboard without tearing his gaze away from the race. "Was it a forced evolution or a natural one..?"
Charles just looked at Ego for a second before turning his eyes to the race once more. 'His brain is probably under extreme amounts of stress and the sudden change of style is probably causing his body pain.'
'He is also doing the same style as the one in the front yet he is changing extremely quickly to his own, this is not a good sign for after this race.'
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With there being less than a hundred meters left in the race, North knew that he wouldn't be able to reach his max speed and make a large difference. With this knowledge, he decided to use the large galloping style of Araki and mix it with his own while using the faint memories of Oguri's style when he raced against her.
Each change caused him to grimace, the pain of not using the muscles correctly or the incorrect usage of them had caused him to have problems but he ignored it. Choosing to race with his guts.
Araki was watching as North suddenly changed his style of racing, his eyes widening when he noticed the similar gallops of North and his own. North would suddenly burst forward as his body narrowed closer to the ground, it was getting parallel to the ground before eventually stopping, his body not being able to support any lower.
North didn't care, using the abilities he had available to him currently to finally close the gap between him and Araki.
Araki was now focused completely on running as fast as he could, he didn't know what North was currently capable of with the sudden new running style of his but he knew that he wouldn't let up his place.
"THERE IS ONLY 100 METERS LEFT AND BOTH HAYATE NORTH AND ARAKI KATSUO IS NOT LETTING UP!" The voice of the announcer finally pierced through the cheers of the stadium, the excitement becoming more palpable as the race closed in.
"ARAKI IS AT THE FRONT-NOW HAYA-NOW ARAKI-BACK TO HAYATE, THEY ARE NECK TO NECK, PASSING EACH OTHER CONSTANTLY AND NOT LETTING UP!!"
The finish line was now fully visible, the line that determined the winner became more prevalent every second they got closer.
Araki was using all the strength he had to push himself forward, his feet were starting to flare in pain with blisters starting to form with the constant beating of the ground. The sweat that dripped from his head glistened with the sunlight that was beaming through the clouds, the pressure of the race forcing it to fall.
Beside him was North, who was grimacing with the pain of a new style that he didn't train for. The sweat that formed was a condensation of the pain he was experiencing and the agony of his legs that were screaming at him to stop. His eyes were fully locked onto the line that was now right in front of him, he could feel the wind splitting from the person beside him. The sound of the beating earth being the only way he knew Araki was there.
50 meters.
40
30
20
10
With the final 10 meters now being the only chance for him to win, North pushed his body one last time, using a surprise burst of speed and energy to force himself forward, passing Araki at the last second.
The sound of North's heartbeat was blaring against his ears and head, he was almost certain that he could hear the sound of his blood flowing through the tense veins and muscles.
"AND HAYATE NORTH WINS WITH A FINAL BURST OF SPEED, TAKING THE LEAD BY A NOSE!!!"
The blaring of the announcer became a background noise for North, the breaths of air becoming sharper with each gasp. The pain of his lungs and body was now more concrete as he gasped like a drowning man.
The sweat coming from him was similar to the business of Tokyo, the sweat made his cloth stick to him. The uneasiness of clothing sticking to oneself not being a matter of importance to his heart.
North looked around, looking as the racers passed the finish line, one by one, Araki was right behind him, gasping for air and sweating a storm yet it was easy to see that he was better off.
The look Araki was giving him was like a man that was robbed of his belongings, the fear in his eyes reminded him of something from long ago. The feeling in his gut had started to grow but stopped as he looked away.
The purple aura that was focused into his eyes started to disperse, it flowed back to his body focusing on the eyes and legs of his. It had changed once more, becoming the same green as before but not becoming the same blue as it initially was.
The feeling of the breeze soon came, touching his face with a soft tap. It lifted the edges of his hair, letting it dance along with the wind.
The sounds of the cheers entered his ears, people calling his name, people yelling with excitement. The darkness that surrounded the edges of his sight eventually started to disappear, letting him see the world once more.
With his breath coming back, North let himself bask in the sound of the people. Bowing to them as a thanks for life.
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If I get 15 power stones, I'll upload the next chapter early
Anyhow, hope you enjoy it.