1 Prologue — Beginning Heat

—This is really, really not good.

Feeling the flames of the burning oil, he twitched at the pain. He couldn't move, even when he tried he already couldn't feel his wheels. What he did feel was his cloth interior burning, and it overwhelmed him.

—It's hot, it's hot, it's hot, it's hot, it's hot, it's hot, it's hot.

Gasoline leaked out of him. With his hazy vision, he could see the ground in front of him stained yellow.

—You've...got to be kidding me... All of this is mine?

Feeling as though all of the oil in him had spilled out. As he looked at the ground and saw the glass shattered all over the ground, he understood.

No wonder it felt so hot, he had crashed. Only bits of metal were still holding him together.

His consciousness started to fade away from him. Before his eyes, he saw a black boot descend, making ripples in the yellow pool of his fresh gasoline.

Someone was there, and that someone...was probably the one who crashed into him.

But he didn't even look that person in the face. It didn't matter anymore.

—The one thing he did wish was that she, at least, would be safe.

"—baru?"

He felt as if he heard a voice that rang like bells. That he heard that voice, that he could hear that voice, felt like salvation to him more than anything else, so—"!"

With a short scream, someone was hit by a car and flung to the floor besides Subaru upon a carpet of her own blood. He tried with all his might to get away so she wouldn't be engulfed in the explosion soon to come.

"I'm going to..."

His engine exploded and everything faded to black...

—save you.