She straddled the bike, felt its warmth through her racing suit. “K-DRIVE,” she said, “execute final route: Spiral Down.”
“Goodbye, partner.”
Hiiragi sat there for a long moment, breathing hard. Then she dismounted, legs trembling, and looked back at the shaft. Nine hundred meters of impossible turns. And she’d conquered every one. Hiiragi--39-s Practice Diary -Final- -K-DRIVE--
They moved as one—her breath, its hum; her heartbeat, its rotor whine. At the seventh hairpin, the magnetic rails failed. She felt the sudden lurch, the terrifying weightlessness. But instead of panicking, she twisted the throttle harder, kicked the rear stabilizer into overdrive, and drifted across the dead zone, scraping sparks off the bare concrete. She straddled the bike, felt its warmth through
“Today I almost crashed into a wall. But I didn’t. Because the K-DRIVE believed in me. Or maybe I’m just too stubborn to die. Either way, I’m going to get faster. I promise.” Nine hundred meters of impossible turns