The K-DRIVE’s AI giggled. “That was close!”
The AI, which she’d programmed years ago with a voice chip from a broken toy, responded in its childish, crackling tone: “You got this, Hiiragi. Let’s fly.” Hiiragi--39-s Practice Diary -Final- -K-DRIVE--
Her eyes stung. She wiped them with the back of her glove, then leaned down and kissed the bike’s handlebar. The K-DRIVE’s AI giggled
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. She wiped them with the back of her
She didn’t mean a slow farewell lap. She keyed the ignition, and the K-DRIVE’s engine purred to life. The dashboard lit up with a custom route she’d programmed months ago but never dared to attempt: the Spiral, a legendary illegal course that threaded through the city’s decommissioned orbital elevator shaft. Nine hundred meters of vertical hairpin turns, zero safety rails, and a finish line that was just a painted X on the bottom floor.
Hiiragi was not normal. And the K-DRIVE was not a normal bike.
This was volume 203. The final one.